Joseph Holbrooke - String Quartets; Clarinet Quintet (Rasumovsky Quartet; Richard Hosford)

Information

Composer: Joseph Holbrooke

1. String Quartet No. 1 'Fantasie in D minor', Op. 17b: 1. 'Departure'
2. String Quartet No. 1 'Fantasie in D minor', Op. 17b: 2. 'Absence'
3. String Quartet No. 1 'Fantasie in D minor', Op. 17b: 3. 'Return'
4. Folsong Suite No. 2, Op. 72: 2. Song of the Bottle
5. Eileen Shona, for Clarinet & Strings
6. String Quartet No. 2 'Impressions', Op. 59a: 1. Serenade (Belgium - 1915)
7. String Quartet No. 2 'Impressions', Op. 59a: 2. Russian Dance (Russia - 1915)
8. Folksong Suite No. 1: 2. The Last Rose of Summer
9. Folksong Suite No. 1: 3. Mavourneen Deelish
10. Clarinet Quintet in G major, Op. 27: 1. Maestoso moderato - Poco allegro cantabile
11. Clarinet Quintet in G major, Op. 27: 2. Canzone: Andante affetuoso
12. Clarinet Quintet in G major, Op. 27: 3. Poco vivace

Richard Hosford, clarinet

Rasumovsky Quartet

    Frances Mason, violin

    Marilyn Taylor, violin

    Christopher Wellington, viola

    Christina Shillito, cello

Date: 2002

Label: Dutton

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Review

The history behind Joseph Holbrooke’s Clarinet Quintet in G certainly weaves a tangled musicological web! The work has its roots in a Horn Quintet first heard in May 1904. Within a decade, the composer had incorporated material from this piece into a pair of clarinet quintets (his Opp 15 and 27). Prior to Reginald Kell’s 1939 world première recording, Holbrooke decided to amalgamate both first movements from the two quintets with an entirely new finale. What’s more, when Jack Brymer subsequently broadcast the work, it featured a different slow movement again, subsequently published separately as Eileen Shona (track 3 on the present anthology, and a very fetching evocation it is, too). According to annotator Lewis Foreman, the version recorded here dates from 1910. It’s an appealing, if slightly garrulous creation, boasting a central Andante affetuoso of songful tenderness and well worth an occasional airing.

By contrast, the First String Quartet of 1904 (whose three movements play without a break and which was submitted for the first Cobbett Fantasy competition in 1905) leaves a curiously pallid impression; for all the solid craftsmanship on show, there’s a want of what I’d call truly distinctive invention. Both its two-movement successor from 1915 and all three chosen numbers from the two Folksong Suites (premièred in 1916-17) are rather more striking, though I can’t say the prospect of revisiting them fills me with relish.

Despite one or two untidy corners, these are committed performances from the Rasumovsky Quartet, and clarinettist Richard Hosford really shines in the Quintet. The sound is agreeable but this is a disc primarily for die-hards.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/feb03/Holbrook_Quartets.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/holbrooke-0

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Joseph Holbrooke (5 July 1878 – 5 August 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He studied under Frederick Corder and Frederick Westlake at the Royal Academy of Music. Holbrooke was a late-Romantic composer, writing in a predominantly tonal and richly chromatic idiom. His style was essentially eclectic: whilst the early chamber works echo the language and methods of Brahms and Dvořák, there is also an exuberance informed by his affection for the music of Tchaikovsky. Only a small fraction of Holbrooke's large output has been recorded by CPO, Dutton, Naxos and Cameo Classics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Holbrooke

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Born in Dorset, Richard Hosford was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain before gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with John McCaw and Thea King. As a founder-member and Principal Clarinet of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Hosford has toured the world, performing as soloist with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, Roger Norrington and Paavo Berglund. He has also served as Principal Clarinet of the London Phiharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as a leading member of The Gaudier Ensemble.

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/a.asp?a=A224

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