Rubbra: Violin Concerto, Op. 103 / Improvisations, Op. 89

Description

Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)Violin Concerto, Op. 103 Improvisations on Virginal Pieces by Giles Farnaby, Op. 50Improvisation for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 89Although he was renowned for his symphonies, concertosand quartets, the unique compositional gifts of the Britishcomposer Edmund Rubbra sometimes seemed at variancewith the large sectional contrasts and structural symmetriesof the sonata-based forms he composed in. Rubbra drewperhaps his profoundest inspiration from the polyphonicmusic of the sixteenth century and the Baroque eras - hewas a natural composer of vocal motets, of large, breathingspans of counterpoint. Although a subtle harmonist, thebasic unit of his music is the line, whether for a voice or aninstrument, flexibly moving against and in consort withother lines. Growth happens in the way these lines extendthemselves, growth of a peculiarly organic, alwaysdevelopingkind, more resembling the inner life andprogressive metamorphosis of a plant than the formalarchitecture of, say, a Beethovenian sonata-movement. It isno coincidence that the first movement of Rubbra's PianoConcerto carries the botanical title 'Corymbus', suggestinga shape peculiar to certain plant forms, nor that he wroteone of the most valuable short manuals on counterpoint inthe twentieth century.One might, therefore, expect any work that Rubbraentitled Improvisation to manifest this quality of free,formally untrammelled growth to perfection: and so it iswith the Improvisation for violin and orchestra, Op. 89,composed in 1956 for the Louisville Orchestra ofLouisville, Kentucky, under that orchestra's enlightenedpolicy of commissioning, giving the premi?¿re andsubsequently issuing commercial recordings of new worksfrom leading composers around the world. The worldpremi?¿re was given by Sidney Harth, the orchestra'sleader, during the Louisville Orchestra's 1957 season,under the baton of their conductor Robert Whitney. TheImprovisation is in fact a substantially recomposed version,using a smaller orchestra, of a Fantasia for violin andorchestra that Rubbra had composed in the mid-1930s buthad held back owing to dissatisfaction with its shape andscoring. The Improvisation opens with an extended solofor the violin in which, accompanied only by a timpaniroll,the soloist expounds the main material, growing freelyand spontaneously from the calm initial phrase and itsanswer, which between them immediately span nine of thetwelve pitches of the chromatic scale. This long, eloquently'speaking' line immediately sets the scene for a discourseat once searching, serious and passionate. This opening istaken over basically unchanged from the original Fantasia,but Rubbra was now able to build upon its implicationswith a greater sense of direction.Thus the violin proceeds to explore several of themotivic elements of the line in partnership with theorchestra, in a combination of variation and thematicmetamorphosis. The mood is mainly meditative, but apt atany moment to flare up in sudden ar