South African-born British composer John Joubert taught for many years at Birmingham University. He is not well known outside of Britain, but he has a core of admirers there among musicians as well as audiences. This release on the small British label Somm includes a performance of the String Quartet No. 2, Op. 91, that was already issued on an earlier Somm album marking the composer's 80th birthday; it is paired here with Joubert's other two quartets. The 85-year-old Joubert contributes his own notes to this project. His ...
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South African-born British composer John Joubert taught for many years at Birmingham University. He is not well known outside of Britain, but he has a core of admirers there among musicians as well as audiences. This release on the small British label Somm includes a performance of the String Quartet No. 2, Op. 91, that was already issued on an earlier Somm album marking the composer's 80th birthday; it is paired here with Joubert's other two quartets. The 85-year-old Joubert contributes his own notes to this project. His music on the evidence of these works is conservative but not academic, with a distinctive personality evident even in the Walton-influenced String Quartet No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 1, a student work from 1950. The second quartet was written in memory of Shostakovich, and indeed the Russian composer is probably the primary influence on Joubert's style: his music is tough, passionate, highly contrapuntal, and bounded by extended tonalities. That work also shows the influence of...
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