Vaughan Williams's greatest champion

[LeMartinPecheur]

I feel Sir Henry Wood deserves at least a mention in despatches for his utterly gorgeous recording, by the 16 soloists for whom it was written, of the Serenade to Music. There is/was a very good Dutton CD called 'Wood conducts Vaughan Williams', with that, the London Symphony and the Wasps overture (Dutton CDBP 9707) and a version (arr. Greaves - who he and why?) of the Fantasia on Greensleeves. OK, maybe he wasn't in the Boult class in terms of quantity (I don't know if there are any other Wood recordings, or how much he programmed VW in concerts) but very high in quality.

[Chris Newman]

Knowing that some of our finest conductors of RVW have come from abroad (Previn, Haitink, Sinaisky, Solti etc) I was pleased this evening to hear a superb performance tonight on Dutch Radio 4 of Symphony No 6 with the Nederlands RPO conducted by the excellent Jaap van Zweden which showed that there are plenty of takers out there. Please can BBC Radio 3 poach the sound engineers from Holland??

[Pabmusic]

...and a version (arr. Greaves - who he and why?) of the Fantasia on Greensleeves. very high in quality.

This is in fact the standard version. Ralph Greaves was a pupil of RVW, I think, who wrote piano music and and ballad-like songs, such as I Arise From Dreams of Thee, Yellow Wine, Once Very Long Ago, A Poplar and the Moon and Lady When Your Lovely Head. He adapted the passage from Sir John in Love as a concert item, scored for two flutes, strings and harp or piano. RVW conducted the first performance in September 1934. It was not the only time (by quite a long way) that RVW avoided having to make arrangements of his works. The Folk Song Suite (arr. Gordon Jacob) is perhaps best known, apart from Greensleeves.

[Sapere Aude]

Actually you can hear another one of RVW's symphonies (no. 5) right now on the iplayer with the Hallé/Elder from the concert yesterday (plus Dvorak and Elgar).

[akiralx]

Knowing that some of our finest conductors of RVW have come from abroad (Previn, Haitink, Sinaisky, Solti etc) I was pleased this evening to hear a superb performance tonight on Dutch Radio 4 of Symphony No 6 with the Nederlands RPO conducted by the excellent Jaap van Zweden which showed that there are plenty of takers out there.

There is a now quite well known recording on Orfeo of RVW6 with the Stuttgart Radio SO under Sir John Barbirolli, it is very fine.

[Serial_Apologist]

Actually you can hear another one of RVW's symphonies (no. 5) right now on the iplayer with the Hallé/Elder from the concert yesterday (plus Dvorak and Elgar).

It was a superb performance, indeed - one of the best of many that I have heard broadcast. If I had one quibble, I would have rather had the ending of the work more drawn out; that apart, the pace was just right, the deep spirituality of the work was captured with complete sensitivity, audience coughs at this most infections-prone time of the year were restricted to the breaks between the movements (and there was no inter-movement applause to break the spell), and for once the sound engoneers got balance and dynamic range right. I didn't have time to hear the remainder of the concert; I trust it all went equally splendidly.

S-A

[Barbirollians]

I see he has now recorded the London Symphony with the Halle, should be good...

I think this might be from the Halle concert last year that included Znaider playing the Elgar Concerto - if so , it was a cracking performance .

[Sapere Aude]

I think this might be from the Halle concert last year that included Znaider playing the Elgar Concerto - if so , it was a cracking performance .

Yes, it's a live recording from that concert.

[Atticus]

It must be Glorious John. I grew up in dirty, grimy old Manchester and his Free Trade Hall concerts were to enter another world. I remember as a school boy hearing a devoted performance of VW's fifth, a symphony I have loved ever since and grown old with.

[johnb]

It must be Glorious John. I grew up in dirty, grimy old Manchester and his Free Trade Hall concerts were to enter another world. I remember as a school boy hearing a devoted performance of VW's fifth, a symphony I have loved ever since and grown old with.

Amongst the many delights of Barbirolli's recording of the 5th is the ending of the Romanza. Those closing bars are, for me, utterly magical.

Yes, I was another devotee of the Halle during my teens and vividly remember hearing JB conducting the 8th.

[Atticus]

JB we must be contemporaries. Did you go to that concert where a concerto by Thea Musgrave was premiered before Mahler's 5th. Everybody had clearly gone to the Free Trade Hall to hear the Mahler and in a rather rude Mancunian fashion, chatted visited the loo, etc, during the Musgrave. Sir John stopped the performance and gave the audience a real roasting - i'll never forget it. Sublime Mahler of course. I was also there when Janet Baker broke down at his memorial concert singing ' The Angel's Farewell". Treasured memories.

[akiralx]

I think this might be from the Halle concert last year that included Znaider playing the Elgar Concerto - if so , it was a cracking performance .

I have now bought this and indeed the performance is excellent, beautifully played and recorded. No audience noise at all if it is live.

I have recordings by Barbirolli, Previn, Haitink, Thomson and Norrington (all of them good - though I don't think Haitink's is quite as fine as the best of his cycle, which are for me the Pastoral and Sixth), and rate this new one very highly. Norrington's is surprisingly fine - his other RVW CD is not good at all.

As a postscript, don't buy this new Elder recording on iTunes as the mp3 encoding has eliminated most of the last two movements for some reason.

[bluestateprommer]

RVW Symphony No. 2, for Londoners and everyone today

While strictly speaking, this is a tad off topic, I thought it appropriate for a salute to London on this day that you guys might want to check out these links, from this side of the pond via YT and south of the equator, namely RVW's A London Symphony, featuring the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Marcelo Lehninger (assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra):

1st movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R-wcSBX5Vs

2nd movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3InxrFT_kc

3rd movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS7Oll-tQ1I

4th movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU__tUYKXDI

Interestingly enough, the only time I've ever heard RVW 2 live was in Boston, with Neville Marriner conducting.

[EdgeleyRob]

Many thanks for those links bluestateprommer, brilliant.

[BBMmk2]

Must do those links sometime! Thjanks for the links BSP!!