Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox.
I - Andante moderato - Adagio, calmo e sereno: 0:00
Rubbra's Symphony No.11 was composed circa 1978-80, being commissioned by the BBC for a Promenade Concert. It was premiered at the Proms on August 20 of 1980, performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Cleobury. The work is dedicated to Colette, his second wife. It was to be the composer's last orchestral work. Rubbra, then seventy-nine years old, may have known that, for he described it as "a culmination of all my symphonies in a single movement."
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 opening horn duet over slowly-changing bass notes plus harp chords, rings out the basic material. After the first large-scale climactic point, there is a passage in which woodwind and strings, with celesta, play in octave-displaced heterophony; the transformation of this opens the door onto a landscape of musical magic. Every detail of the counterpoint in this delicately scored music leads the argument onwards naturally. One feels that one is being told a tale by a master story-teller. The final climax is perfunctory, but this is intended, as the true essence of the symphony lies in its quiet ending on an enigmatically spaced and scored chord of C major. During the course of the work, we have been led into a world of inner peace and beauty. After the depths and heights of Rubbra’s creative journey, serenity has been achieved.
Picture: "The Needles, Isle of Wight" by British painter Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Source: tinyurl.com/2bdpskmw
Unfortunately, the score isn't freely available.
BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Richard Hickox.
I - Andante moderato - Adagio, calmo e sereno: 0:00
Rubbra's Symphony No.11 was composed circa 1978-80, being commissioned by the BBC for a Promenade Concert. It was premiered at the Proms on August 20 of 1980, performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Cleobury. The work is dedicated to Colette, his second wife. It was to be the composer's last orchestral work. Rubbra, then seventy-nine years old, may have known that, for he described it as "a culmination of all my symphonies in a single movement."
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 opening horn duet over slowly-changing bass notes plus harp chords, rings out the basic material. After the first large-scale climactic point, there is a passage in which woodwind and strings, with celesta, play in octave-displaced heterophony; the transformation of this opens the door onto a landscape of musical magic. Every detail of the counterpoint in this delicately scored music leads the argument onwards naturally. One feels that one is being told a tale by a master story-teller. The final climax is perfunctory, but this is intended, as the true essence of the symphony lies in its quiet ending on an enigmatically spaced and scored chord of C major. During the course of the work, we have been led into a world of inner peace and beauty. After the depths and heights of Rubbra’s creative journey, serenity has been achieved.
Picture: "The Needles, Isle of Wight" by British painter Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Source: tinyurl.com/2bdpskmw
Unfortunately, the score isn't freely available.
