Rubbra's Genius.
MONG contemporary British composers, I have a special respect and affection for Edmund Rubbra. This is partly because he is not. one of the Bright Boys of the Boulanger Bunch, and because he has never cultivated eccentricities of style or courted publicity; but most of all because he has the gift of ardour in economy, of producing deep emotional effects through austerity. So little of his work is recorded that 1YC’s recent half-hour of Rubbra was, if I may coin a phrase, right up my sinuous musical alley. Kathleen Reardon, a contralto with great interpretive gifts, sang three beautiful Psalms, which showed Rubbra’s genius for religious music of integrity and sincerity, as well as demonstrating an interesting use of the piano interweaving contrapuntally with the voice. This was followed by a recording of the Secohd Violin Sonata,.to my mind one of the loveliest short works of modern British music. The perceptive introductory note suggested to me the hand of
Owen Jensen, notably in the reference to Rubbra as "something of a dark horse in contemporary music." Perhaps some day we may hear Grieg referred to as "a Norse of a different colour!"
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19520222.2.18.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 659, 22 February 1952, Page 10
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194Rubbra's Genius. New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 659, 22 February 1952, Page 10
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