Reflective modality Listening to a recital of music by Rubbra and Vaughan Williams - with PATRIC STANDFORD '... a notable collection of songs in beautifully controlled and devoted performances ...'

There is an air of reflective modality about this recital, and yet it is Edmund Rubbra rather than Vaughan Williams to whom the greater part of the performance time is devoted. Rubbra is justly associated with symphonic music and a pure, distinctive style of choral writing that owes so much to his study of and deep affection for the polyphonic style of Elizabethan madrigalists. He turned his passions into music with meticulous craftsmanship, and neither passion nor craft was superficial. Other composers may seem more clever, but few are so capably honest. Most of Rubbra's songs belong to his younger composing days, and Mark Chambers presents a group of these languid and beautifully moulded miniatures with obvious affection.

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