Edmund Rubbra has, for many, a rather forbidding reputation as a composer
of "pure", or of "abstract" music; which is to say there are no programmes
to his works. Since this could equally be said of Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms,
why should there be any problem of popularity for Rubbra? The fascination
of watching intervals grow into melodies, and melodies into movements is
as exciting as any plot in opera or symphonic poem. Let it also be said now
that Rubbra has composed some of the most beautiful melodies in all music.
The four String Quartets span Rubbra's entire creative career, from his early
thirties to his late seventies, and it is only to be expected that such a
mind as his would create four key works in such a medium. The Sterling are
therefore to be congratulated on their perspicacity in choosing to record
these four masterpieces for their recording debut. They recently included
the second quartet in a fine recital at the Wigmore Hall, and showed, there,
a deep sympathy for Rubbra's meditative muse. This group of players should
be watched for their independent and imaginative programming as well as for
their interpretative talents.
There is often in Rubbra's music before the second world war a dignified
and awesome anger. It is at its most overwhelming in the first symphony and
in parts of the second. It does not appear in his work after the cathartic
fourth symphony (1942). The first quartet has some of this spirit in its
first movement, and I feel that the Sterlings do not quite project it to
the full though they certainly get to the heart of the succeeding tragic
processional, and the final dance which it germinates. The confidence with
which they then follow the composer into a world which is more tranquil,
but not free of shadows, suggests that young artists of spirituality are
still with us. It is a sad fact that the only one of these quartets to be
recorded before is the second. The Sterlings do it ample justice. Anyone
wishing to sample their maturity of feeling for this great composer might
try the first movement of this second quartet, and appreciate how they follow
it, seamless soaring from song to dance and back. The third quartet is the
most relaxed of the four. From ruminating shadows it proceeds to a veritable
"dance in the sunlight". The Sterlings have its measure, and their penetration
into the elegiac world of the finale of the last quartet is an experience
which remains with one long after the music has finished. This is a set to
treasure. It is to be hoped that more of Rubbra's chamber music will be recorded.
Apart from the violin sonatas and other major works such impressive examples
of "multum in parvo" as the Pezzo Ostinato or the Sonatina for recorder and
harpsichord need to be heard often.
Michael Freeman.
Sterling Quartet
