01. - 04. Symphony No.6, op.80 [37'26]
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult
05. - 07. Symphony No.8, op.132 'Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin' [28'18]
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Groves
Intaglio INCD 7311 (broadcasts recorded in 1971; CD issued 1992)
(CD-rip; flacs, cover and inlay scans, no booklet)
Recording venues: not given (Symphony 6); Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool (Symphony 8)
Recording engineers and producers: not given
Here are two significant recordings of performances by great supporters of the composer - the Symphony No.8 being of the work's world premiere performance given on 5 August 1971 (three years after it was composed). Neither conductor recorded these works commercially and these are both in-concert recordings. The Italy-based 'pirate' label did not have a good reputation for recording quality but these two recordings are surprisingly acceptable although not of studio quality for the period and no match for Norman Del Mar's similar coupling for Lyrita. I am most grateful to a friend for sending me this rip from CD.
The performance of the Sixth symphony under Sir Adrian is arguably the finest of the work issued as a recording - with the majestic finale having just the right tempo. The symphony was given its premiere by the BBC Symphony under Malcolm Sargent in 1954 and it is probably my favourite of Rubbra's symphonies.
Sir Charles delivers a powerful premiere of the eighth symphony but the orchestral playing is a bit rough and less secure than the Royal Philharmonic for Sir Adrian. (Perhaps insufficient rehearsal time for a difficult new work?) The subject of the symphony's title, Chardin, was a twentieth-century Jesuit paleoanthropologist "whose theory of evolution included non-living nature as profound history and that man, a material system within other material systems, experiences his own individual consciousness as 'spiritual energy'." So, there - but the work does indeed have a sense of calm spirituality, in line with Rubbra's deep religious convictions.
Download from MEGA.