You want to love Rubbra: he’s so sincere, thoughtful, and often quite beautiful. But these two resolutely unexciting symphonies probably will try your patience. Rubbra has a habit of writing finales in particularly sectional forms, such as the theme and variations that closes the Third Symphony, and even though these are very good performances, typically well engineered, the result falls flat as a pancake. The Fourth has a more satisfying shape, but it also suffers from a dearth of memorable thematic material and a terminal lack of contrast. While I admire much of Rubbra’s work (particularly Symphonies 5-8), and despite the bonus of having the two attractive shorter pieces, I can only recommend this release to hard-core Rubbrans (Rubbers?).
