Vaughan Williams Symphonies 1-9. USSR State Symphony Orchestra/Rozhdestvensky. Melodiya CDs (2014), Rec. live in Leningrad 1988-89.
I hesitated long over this set (I overdosed on these symphonies in the 1970s from record library LPs of Boult, Previn etc.), RC's Gramophone review finally forcing me to find out for myself... and a very absorbing adventure it's been, with fresh and sometimes startlingly different readings.
I went straight for Nos 3-6 and 8, and they've kept me company since the weekend, despite several enticing new releases of such as Norgard and Stenhammar on the playlist .
3 and 5 have a wonderfully sensuous, Ravellian textural delicacy; the tempi are moderate to slower-than-average but with a very natural and fluid rubato and a striking rhythmical buoyancy. Rozh is very alive to those little string and solo wind figures that are such a part of the pleasure of listening to VW - they sparkle and flash and grab your attention - and the mid-hall, spacious perspective adds to the vividly atmospheric and poetic feel of the performances. Both the G. and the Musicweb reviews describe the sound as "never less than acceptable" etc., but I have to say I found it more inviting than that; slightly distanced, but very detailed, and warm and full into climaxes. Good dynamic range too. The lovely strings provide a cushion for some brilliant brasses. Too many striking details to mention, but when you reach No. 6 - a shattering, stupendous performance - you really feel it as the culmination, the peak of VW's output. Rozh shapes the counterpoint and cross-rhythms with a searing angularity here, placing VW at the heart of the 20th-Century Symphonic, rather than an "English" Tradition. The Epilogue - all 14'34 of it - probably isn't quite as quiet as VW intended, but works wonderfully well in context.
(The early entry of the doublebasses just after the start is perhaps one striking detail too many, but at least it's quiet and goes with the flow...)
The 1st movement of No.4 is much slower than usual; for me, with the strings' great melody more intensely yearning at this speed, this lends it a uniquely visionary quality, quite different from the usual aggressive energy that tends to dominate. But it will certainly divide opinion! As a reading, No.4 is very different from the norm, perhaps not quite "settled", but compelling to listen to. The fragile flute solo in the andante, and those quiet string episodes in the outer movements, really tell upon the ear and the heart.
The 8th is played with great warmth and virtuosic brilliance; it seemed to me far less enigmatic than usual.
If you'd asked me at the start of the year if I was likely to buy any VW in 2014, I would have said - scale of 1 to 10, probably 1... but now, I can't wait to explore further, I'm very glad it's here! Surely one of the most unexpected treats of a very rich year for new releases.
I hesitated long over this set (I overdosed on these symphonies in the 1970s from record library LPs of Boult, Previn etc.), RC's Gramophone review finally forcing me to find out for myself... and a very absorbing adventure it's been, with fresh and sometimes startlingly different readings.
I went straight for Nos 3-6 and 8, and they've kept me company since the weekend, despite several enticing new releases of such as Norgard and Stenhammar on the playlist .
3 and 5 have a wonderfully sensuous, Ravellian textural delicacy; the tempi are moderate to slower-than-average but with a very natural and fluid rubato and a striking rhythmical buoyancy. Rozh is very alive to those little string and solo wind figures that are such a part of the pleasure of listening to VW - they sparkle and flash and grab your attention - and the mid-hall, spacious perspective adds to the vividly atmospheric and poetic feel of the performances. Both the G. and the Musicweb reviews describe the sound as "never less than acceptable" etc., but I have to say I found it more inviting than that; slightly distanced, but very detailed, and warm and full into climaxes. Good dynamic range too. The lovely strings provide a cushion for some brilliant brasses. Too many striking details to mention, but when you reach No. 6 - a shattering, stupendous performance - you really feel it as the culmination, the peak of VW's output. Rozh shapes the counterpoint and cross-rhythms with a searing angularity here, placing VW at the heart of the 20th-Century Symphonic, rather than an "English" Tradition. The Epilogue - all 14'34 of it - probably isn't quite as quiet as VW intended, but works wonderfully well in context.
(The early entry of the doublebasses just after the start is perhaps one striking detail too many, but at least it's quiet and goes with the flow...)
The 1st movement of No.4 is much slower than usual; for me, with the strings' great melody more intensely yearning at this speed, this lends it a uniquely visionary quality, quite different from the usual aggressive energy that tends to dominate. But it will certainly divide opinion! As a reading, No.4 is very different from the norm, perhaps not quite "settled", but compelling to listen to. The fragile flute solo in the andante, and those quiet string episodes in the outer movements, really tell upon the ear and the heart.
The 8th is played with great warmth and virtuosic brilliance; it seemed to me far less enigmatic than usual.
If you'd asked me at the start of the year if I was likely to buy any VW in 2014, I would have said - scale of 1 to 10, probably 1... but now, I can't wait to explore further, I'm very glad it's here! Surely one of the most unexpected treats of a very rich year for new releases.
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