The Lark Ascending has an extended initial history of performances for violin and organ... This version works beautifully, and this performance is simply drop-dead gorgeous. Marshall-Luck’s violin playing beggars description for its rich beauty of tone, to which one can add immaculate intonation and precision of rhythm plus wonderfully long-limbed lyricism. (How I would love to hear him in the various solo-violin works of Max Bruch!)

Lionel Sainsbury’s Soliloquy, op. 21, for unaccompanied violin... is a terrific discovery, a real virtuoso showpiece that also has a great deal to say.  Lasting only just over seven minutes, its marriage of passionate statement involving much sweeping figuration across the full range of the instrument, and vigorously impulsive upbeats leading to frequently double-stopped melodic utterances, suggests a comprehensive understanding of the instrument. Intensely violinistic, the piece is given a searing performance by Marshall-Luck, who convinces one that its comparatively short span contains an utterance of compressed energy, ideally realised.

Havergal Brian’s Legend [has been] orchestrated and is performed with devotion by violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck.

The performances are as satisfying and as confidently magisterial as the recording quality, which never misses a beat in its clarity and strength.  We should never take the redoubtable Rupert Marshall-Luck for granted.  Here is a man who continues to introduce us to works that the years have discarded and trodden down.  He brings them to us not as something fusty and dusty but as precious and joyous.  His work at the EMF in this and previous years and his many previous discs leave us in no doubt of his great artistry and advocacy.  It’s an extraordinary heritage that he is laying down.

Rupert Marshall-Luck plays his orchestration of Havergal Brian’s Legend with real fire. I find it more approachable than the original, though it is still (typically) enigmatic... For me it is over too soon.

Roderick Williams is on fine form, as is Rupert Marshall-Luck in the Legend by Havergal Brian that he has himself orchestrated. Ranging widely in expressive profile, while building considerable fervour during its during its relatively brief span prior to a calmly eloquent close, it is a stylish adaption of the violin-and-piano original which has enjoyed increasing exposure this last decade.

Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter [of Stanford’s second Violin Concerto]: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folksong-like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful...

If this work is a worthy discovery, another première recording — of the Violin Concerto by Robin Milford — is even more of a surprise: attractive, unmistakeably English, but with touches of darkness and chromatic harmony in the slow movement and some bold gestures in the finale, not least its sombre ending. Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholy strain.

[Rupert Marshall-Luck’s] playing is perfect in intonation, phrasing, rich and luscious violin tone — in fact, everything. He does Whettam’s music proud in these recordings. This is music that grabs your attention from the beginning and holds it there. The discs are surely an essential for the serious violinist and for those who admire the finest and most thrilling virtuosity in performance.

[Rupert Marshall-Luck] has taken Whettam’s wonderful music to heart and is a great advocate of it... [his] stunningly-performed survey of the solo-violin music is an excellent contribution to Graham Whettam’s discography.

Les perilleux passages en doubles cordes sont surmontes par Rupert Marshall-Luck avec une sportive aisance. Son timbre chaleureux fait merveille dans le lyrisme elegiaque du mouvement lent, d’un raffinement harmonique tout fauréen.

The perilous double-stopping passages are overcome by Rupert Marshall-Luck with an athletic ease. His warm tone is marvellous in the elegiac lyricism of the slow movement, which is all Fauréan in its harmonic refinement.

Es präsentierte mit Rupert Marshall-Luck, einen englischen Meistergeiger... linearer, durchsichtiger, klanglich abwechslungsreicher und individueller beim viele Schönheiten bietenden Violinkonzert Moerans. Hier sorgte Marshall-Luck mit sattem, kräftigem Ton für Aufmerksamkeit provozierende Wirkung.

[The 3rd Philharmonic concert] presented Rupert Marshall-Luck, an English master-violinist... Linear, transparent, richly varied in tone and idiosyncratic, Moeran’s Violin Concerto offered much beauty. Marshall-Luck commanded attention with a rich, powerful tone to inspirational effect.

Rupert Marshall-Luck is a most eloquent advocate and his way with these new pieces and indeed with the many rarities he has brought back to thriving life is both moving and admirable.

Milford’s idiom has a lean purity, plus a flair for long-spun, yet beautifully focused melodic line. All this is conveyed with much loveliness by Rupert Marshall-Luck, whose handsome tone and laser-like tuning are remarkable in themselves.

With great pleasure I have been listening to this two-CD set from EM Records... We have music of distinction and performances to match. A decisive view of how the structures must knit together... and considerable mental stamina from both players... are firmly implanted into the performances, and the passionate, lyrical dimension of this work [the B minor Sonata] comes over with natural candour... There is just the right amount of flexibility in the approach... and a velvety warmth to Marshall-Luck’s sound in the lower register. [These recordings] show this duo on magnificent form.

Rupert Marshall-Luck’s account glows with fervour.

This CD is a winner all around: The performances are first-rate, and violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck does double duty equally convincingly on the viola in the Chaconne. Recorded sound is clear and musical, and presents both the music and the performances in the best possible light. I view John Pickard as an important composer of our time. His is an individual voice, and his music is both approachable and rewarding, demanding repeated listening. This is simply a compact disc not to be missed.

These two fine musicians have done an invaluable service in bringing to light several works by their British countrymen that have heretofore been shamefully neglected.  Marshall-Luck and Rickard’s performances of this music are, in turn, thrilling and touching. They capture the moods of these pieces unerringly and to perfection. Marshall-Luck’s... technique and intonation are flawless, [and] each work is projected with knowing sensitivity and communicative expression... Recommended all round for some extraordinarily beautiful music and extraordinarily beautiful playing.

All these performances meet the often considerable challenges of their respective pieces head on. Rupert Marshall-Luck, in particular, proves as adept in an overtly contemporary idiom as in those of the early twentieth century with which he is most associated... [Pickard’s] music has a substance and durability which make it, and the present disc, required listening.