Edmund Rubbra's Brahms Variations And Fugue On A Theme By Handel Op. 24 was performed in the 1940s and 50s by Arturo Toscanini and Eugene Ormandy, and his Rubbra's Fifth Symphony was recorded by Sir John Barbirolli and programmed by Leopold Stokowski. Yet today Rubbra's music is rarely if ever heard in the concert hall. So we are fortunate that it has been better served in the recording studio. Notable recordings include Richard Hickox's indispensable survey of all the symphonies for Chandos , supplemented by compelling interpretations by Norman del Mar, Tod Handley, Sir Adrian Boult, and the composer. (But strangely, Rubbra's Brahms Variations is missing from the current CD catalogue.) But why has Rubbra failed to gain traction in the concert hall? Why, for example, in an age when accessible trumps challenging , is Rubbra's Fourth Symphony virtually unknown? Why is his music so neglected when the Lark Ascending consistently tops popularity polls, and Robert L...
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(sorry if this is a repeat - not sure the first attempt made it, I run my default browser with extremely restricted settings and occasionally get bitten :-) )
(bobregular)
Hi Bob:
More like “Guessing the Score” but would it be Elgar’s “The Apostles”?
Carol
… Elgar’s Apostles which includes a Shofar …
Antoine
Interesting trivia ... of the first five readers who correctly identified Elgar's The Apostles one lives in England, one in Estonia, one in France (just) and two in the States. Which gives the lie to Elgar only appealing to the English.
More trivia, the first two correct answers came from current or former librarians on both sides of the Atlantic and two of the first three came from ladies, the eternal feminine clearly know their Elgar.
I was going to head the post Shofar so good but thought that would give the game away.
What a wonderful work The Apostles is. It is so different to the 'smells and bells' of Gerontius and is almost contemporary in its ecumenical message.
If you don't know the work Boult's classic recording from EMI is currently available for the price of two Starbuck lattes - no contest.
Many thanks to everyone who joined in the fun.
Actually, the question is as much whether Elgar finds appeal beyond the UK (I love Falstaff and the end of the Dream is worthy of Brahms’s German Requiem) as much as how many who responded correctly are Jewish (disclosure: I am).
AL
Actually, I live in Lithuania, not Estonia.
One of my friends, Anatolijus Senderovas, had composed a piece involving the shofar, Shmaa Israel
http://www.mic.lt/en/classical/persons/works/senderovas/36?ref=%2Fen%2Fclassical%2Fpersons%2F41
It involves a shofar...you can listen to bits of it. After that it was easy to find it....
Doesn't mean I appreciate Elgar, though ;-)
-- Beate
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