Milhaud, Adler, Rubbra & Dvořák: Chamber Music

This collection of chamber music for violin and other instruments includes works by Milhaud, Piston, Adler, Martinu, Rubbra, and Dvorak. Possibly the least known composer for American listeners is Edmund Rubbra, an Englishman who was born in 1901 and died in 1986 on St. Valentine's Day. He produced more than 160 works, a prolific output for a twentieth century composer, and made major contributions to all forms except opera. He developed a unique and unmistakable style which will increasingly be considered to be not a by-way but an integral part of twentieth century music history. Rubbra was born in Northampton of parents who were both music lovers. Cyril Scott heard of Rubbra performing a recital of his music and invited him to study composition. He eventually won a composition scholarship at University College where he studied composition with Holst. Thus Rubbra was taught by two composers with whom he had great natural affinities and interests. All three were interested in Eastern philosophy and mysticism, then highly fashionable in artistic circles, while Scott was an imaginative and at his best, highly original composer who was very sympathetic to Rubbra's aspirations. It was Holst, however, who released in Rubbra his enduring love of counterpoint and introduced him to the rich treasures of English Renaissance music, then only being slowly discovered.