Joseph Holbrooke: Sonata in F Major for Violin and Piano (“The Grasshopper”)

Granville Bantock: Sonata in F Major for Viola and Piano “COLLEEN”

(World Premiére recording - Performed on Gustav Holst’s viola)

Rupert Marshall-Luck (Violin and Viola); Matthew Rickard (Piano)

EM RECORDS (EMR CD003)

EM Records is the recording arm of the English Music Festival

“Heroically impressive piano playing”

MuiscWeb International

“Matthew Rickard’s piano-playing is also impressive”

Gramophone

Review of recording by MusicWeb International

[the acoustic of the hall] allows Matthew Rickard’s heroically impressive piano playing to register with power and attractive sonority – in both works the pair of players are excellent at negotiating the numerous transitions between sections with perfect accord and musical conviction. ...

The players here are passionate and impressive advocates of both works. ...

The Bantock [finale] is a rather wonderful Irish folk-inspired romp – not that he uses pre-existing tunes but rather evokes a complex web of impressions of Irish merry-making – jigs, reels, moments of maudlin reflection and general hubbub overlap and collide – its exhilarating stuff played with great aplomb. ...

I would count this sonata [the Bantock] as being one of the finest chamber works of his that I have heard and so constitutes a major discovery in this its world première recording. Its success rests on Bantock exploiting the ‘limitation’ of the two instruments as a way of focusing his mind onto the form and content. ...

This is a well-programmed, finely played and valuable disc – qualities that could be used to define the English Music Festival itself.

 Nick Barnard

Review of recording by Gramophone

Whether on violin or viola, Marshall-Luck plays with ideal purity over the widest range, important in both works when high harmonics are involved. Matthew Rickard’s piano-playing is also impressive, notably in the flamboyant writing in the Bantock.

Edward Greenfield

Review of recording by MusicWeb International

Matthew Rickard is [Rupert Marshall-Luck’s] fine sonata colleague and he expertly propels the piano writing [of the Holbrooke] which is powerful, strong and highly effective.

Jonathan Woolf