Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox.
I - Lento e liberamente (0:00) - Scherzando ma grazioso (4:44) - Lento (8:33) - Molto adagio (14:02)
Rubbra's Symphony No.10 was composed on 1974, being commissioned by the Arts Council for the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra. Scored for a reduced chamber orchestra (one flute, two oboes one of which doubles English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings), it was premiered by said orchestra on January 8 of 1975, conducted by Rudolf Schwarz. The symphony is dedicated to fellow composer Sir Arthur Bliss, which is rather surprising considering Bliss never appreciated Rubbra's music, going so far as to compare his symphonies to stale pork pies.
Saxton sees affinities with the Sibelius seventh. Both works play extensively with scalar motives and are written in one movement in multiple sections. However, Rubbra's practice of constant transformation and little, if any, traditional development or reliance on classical forms takes this symphony out of Sibelian territory, as does the emphasis on intricate counterpoint. Rubbra uses is primary method of building a symphony, which is to state a germ motive and let the symphony grow organically, as a whole, in a texture of constantly developing polyphony. Overall, the symphony is one of the best examples of the success of the method of letting the symphony find its form and expression through growth rather than the traditional Romantic idea of struggle among contrasting themes.
The piece is loosely structured in sonata form, with each section being separated by a brief pause. It begins with a lento exposition whose opening is given to solo cello, which introduces an interval built around the notes B, F-sharp and A, which is the basis of the whole work. Over this interval, two themes are constructed and unfolded through passages in scale-wise motion, building a complex and powerful polyphonic texture. This leads to a climax culminating on the note B in octaves on the horn, before the same process continues but focusing on F-sharp and A. The music continues to build, almost to an unbearable pitch, until it breaks off and, after a brief silence, the next section begins.
Follows a scherzando development of the material, offering an immediate contrast to the preceding climax. The music takes us into the world of the dance as celebration, a feature of earlier English music and an aspect of musical expression dear to Holst and Tippett. However, the hold of the initial material is still there, for the oboe solo moves downwards from F-sharp to B, thus reversing the direction of the symphony's opening statement. This rhythmically inventive development eventually leads into the third section, a kind of a recapitulation with a return to the initial slow tempo and a wonderfully evocative English horn solo. As always with Rubbra, this is entirely derived from the symphony’s fundamental material.
As the slow music is pervaded by the character of the dance's counterpoint, with poignant violin and viola solo passages, an ecstatic climax is reached. The final section is a substantial and ruminative coda that is a kind of reflection on the whole symphony. It stresses the prevailing diminished fifth interval, but, in moving from the tonal centre of B to that of A, underlines the importance of this shift throughout the symphony before it comes to rest on a luminous A major chord.
Picture: "Landscape Beach" (1975) by British painter Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Sources: tinyurl.com/2bdpskmw and tinyurl.com/2de4n8m3
Unfortunately, the score isn't freely available.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox.
I - Lento e liberamente (0:00) - Scherzando ma grazioso (4:44) - Lento (8:33) - Molto adagio (14:02)
Rubbra's Symphony No.10 was composed on 1974, being commissioned by the Arts Council for the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra. Scored for a reduced chamber orchestra (one flute, two oboes one of which doubles English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings), it was premiered by said orchestra on January 8 of 1975, conducted by Rudolf Schwarz. The symphony is dedicated to fellow composer Sir Arthur Bliss, which is rather surprising considering Bliss never appreciated Rubbra's music, going so far as to compare his symphonies to stale pork pies.
Saxton sees affinities with the Sibelius seventh. Both works play extensively with scalar motives and are written in one movement in multiple sections. However, Rubbra's practice of constant transformation and little, if any, traditional development or reliance on classical forms takes this symphony out of Sibelian territory, as does the emphasis on intricate counterpoint. Rubbra uses is primary method of building a symphony, which is to state a germ motive and let the symphony grow organically, as a whole, in a texture of constantly developing polyphony. Overall, the symphony is one of the best examples of the success of the method of letting the symphony find its form and expression through growth rather than the traditional Romantic idea of struggle among contrasting themes.
The piece is loosely structured in sonata form, with each section being separated by a brief pause. It begins with a lento exposition whose opening is given to solo cello, which introduces an interval built around the notes B, F-sharp and A, which is the basis of the whole work. Over this interval, two themes are constructed and unfolded through passages in scale-wise motion, building a complex and powerful polyphonic texture. This leads to a climax culminating on the note B in octaves on the horn, before the same process continues but focusing on F-sharp and A. The music continues to build, almost to an unbearable pitch, until it breaks off and, after a brief silence, the next section begins.
Follows a scherzando development of the material, offering an immediate contrast to the preceding climax. The music takes us into the world of the dance as celebration, a feature of earlier English music and an aspect of musical expression dear to Holst and Tippett. However, the hold of the initial material is still there, for the oboe solo moves downwards from F-sharp to B, thus reversing the direction of the symphony's opening statement. This rhythmically inventive development eventually leads into the third section, a kind of a recapitulation with a return to the initial slow tempo and a wonderfully evocative English horn solo. As always with Rubbra, this is entirely derived from the symphony’s fundamental material.
As the slow music is pervaded by the character of the dance's counterpoint, with poignant violin and viola solo passages, an ecstatic climax is reached. The final section is a substantial and ruminative coda that is a kind of reflection on the whole symphony. It stresses the prevailing diminished fifth interval, but, in moving from the tonal centre of B to that of A, underlines the importance of this shift throughout the symphony before it comes to rest on a luminous A major chord.
Picture: "Landscape Beach" (1975) by British painter Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Sources: tinyurl.com/2bdpskmw and tinyurl.com/2de4n8m3
Unfortunately, the score isn't freely available.
