“Completed in 1951, the Second Quartet is a marvellously inventive piece, beautifully scored for the medium, unfailingly purposeful and full of beguilingly subtle rhythmic and harmonic resource. Bearing a dedication to Robert Simpson, the two-movement Fourth Quartet of 1975-7 was one of Rubbra's last major works. Probing and intensely poignant, it's another hugely eloquent, seamlessly evolving affair which repays repeated hearings. The Dante Quartet prove outstandingly sympathetic proponents of Rubbra's noble inspiration, their playing urgently expressive and tonally ingratiating. Pianist Michael Dussek joins proceedings for a stylish and delectably unforced account of the Lyric Movement of 1929, an expertly wrought essay for piano quintet which itself grew out of an earlier, discarded string quartet. Tony Faulkner's Maltings sound is excellent on the whole, if just a fraction too closely balanced. No matter, a wonderful disc.”
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