VIOLINIST | MUSICOLOGIST
A disc featuring works for solo violin by contemporary composers Richard Blackford, Richard Pantcheff and Joseph Phibbs has just been released on the label EM Records. Phibbs’s effervescent, evocative and colourful Suite for Solo Violin is presented alongside Pantcheff’s To Autumn — a celebration for reciter and violin of poets including Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Clare, John Keats and Robert Louis Stevenson — and Blackford’s Dreams and Spells : an interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. For the Blackford and the Pantcheff, Rupert is joined on the recording by his wife, Em Marshall-Luck, Director of The English Music Festival.
Rupert’s scholarly-critical edition of the Sonata for Piano and Violin by Sir Arthur Bliss, of which he gave the first performance and made the first recording, will be published later in 2025 by Boosey & Hawkes. This single-movement sonata is an early work, probably written around 1912, and is one of the few of Bliss’s early compositions which he did not later destroy: it therefore offers a fascinating glimpse into his formative years as a composer. The publication is being issued as part of the commemorations marking the fiftieth anniversary of Bliss’s death.
In July 2025 Rupert collaborated with the South African pianist Peter Cartwright in a recording of the complete music for violin and piano by Alan Rawsthorne. Rawsthorne developed a very personal and unmistakeable harmonic language together with a markedly constructive approach to form, which may have been influenced by his early studies in architecture. As well as the masterly Sonata of 1958, this new disc will feature the two early, unpublished sonatas, written for the violinist Jessie Hinchliffe, and the delightful character piece Pierrette, which inhabits a completely different sound-world and is evidence of a versatility later revealed in Rawsthorne’s film music. Bringing early, previously unrecorded works together with those of Rawsthorne’s established repertoire will make this an important and fascinating release.
Rupert Marshall-Luck’s scholarly-critical edition of Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, op. 20, has recently been published by G. Henle Verlag. The Serenade is one of Elgar’s most popular compositions and is among the most frequently played works in the string-orchestra literature. This new Henle Urtext comprises conductor’s score, a set of parts and a study edition. Full details are available on the Henle website.
Rupert discusses the new edition in an online interview with Dr Norbert Müllemann, Head of Publishing at G. Henle Verlag. The interview is now available to read on the Henle Blog: follow this link for the English-language version, and this link for the version in German.
In late March and early April 2026, Rupert will once again be joining the South African pianist Peter Cartwright for concerts in Johannesburg and the Western Cape, including a recital as part of the Prestige Concert Series at Stellenbosch University, where they have also been invited to give masterclasses. Their programmes for these concerts will include sonatas by the South African composer Peter Klatzow and the British composer Frederick Delius, as well as works by Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. More details will be posted on the Future Events page as they become available.
In 2026, the publishing firm Boydell & Brewer, known for its scholarly volumes encompassing disciplines as diverse as mediaeval history and early modern literature, German Studies and music, will issue The Importance of Elgar, a collection of essays by musicians and musicologists produced under the auspices of The Elgar Society to mark its 75th anniversary. Rupert’s contribution examines the notation of Elgar’s music for violin and what it can tell us about the music’s intended execution as well as how Elgar himself viewed the instrument and the violinistic environment within which he was working. The findings set out in the article derive from work on the editions of Elgar’s music that Rupert has prepared for G. Henle Verlag.
During the summer and autumn of 2025 Rupert will be working with Victoria College Exams to develop a completely new syllabus for the College’s higher-level examinations and diplomas in violin. Victoria College has provided a system of examinations in Music, Speech and Drama since 1890 and the exams are accredited by The Learning Machine, an awarding organisation regulated in England by OFQUAL (the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation); the qualifications are also internationally recognised, with official recognition on the National Qualifications Framework and the European Qualifications Framework.
Rupert’s work on the new syllabus will include a complete overhaul of the repertoire required for each examination as well as a re-appraisal and an extension of their technical requirements according to his recommendations.