BaL 6.04.24 - Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

[richardfinegold]

Well well! Quelle surprise: the winner is conducted by an expatriate with a German orchestra, a professional choir and 'international' soloists.Clearly, it's a thoughtful interpretation, well-recorded and, perhaps, a modern analogue of Boult's without the obvious organ pedal that underpins Boult's earlier recording. I've sung the piece often and it makes demands on amateur choirsmthat they can't always deliver. Arman's professionals are flexible, always in tune and their diction benefits from their sparsity of the numbers.

This SACD version is an expensive rarity in GB so the investor in me says 'I'm out'.

Afternoon record reviews do not suit me well. I've had to catch up on SOUNDS over a glass of wine late into the evening.

I warm to DON's enthusiasm and unpredictable, unprejudiced opinions even when his winner is as rare as hen's teeth.

An excellent BAL spoiled only, as others have noticed, by apparent ignorance of when RVW studied with Maurice Ravel and the composer's earlier, Parry-rich Walt Whitman setting 'Towards an Unknown Region'.

The label carrying this recording is an expensive boutique label here as well. As for the complaints about the change of time, I like your solution of having a glass of wine while listening to the replay

[edashtav]

The point I was rather clumsily attempting to make that
the use of a professional choir in this particular work strikes me as perverse, is that RVW and Whitman are
both celebrants of ordinary, flawed humanity - apostles of Everyman, or Bunyan’s Pilgrim, if you will, and that the all-embracing vision of poet and composer is better served by a large, warts & all amateur choir, than by the
well-modulated perfection of professionals.

In sum, I would no more wish to hear a pro chorus in this work, than hear The Ring performed by amateurs.

Professional musicians have moved from accepting amateur Choral Societies to preferring to work with smaller groups of higher quality. For instance the wide tent of the 100+Bournemouth Municipal Choir has morphed into the 70+ Bournemouth Symphony Chorus.

[edashtav]

A bit disappointing that DON was only asked for his criteria for selection at the end of the review. These could have been established at the outset.

That's a good point that you've made: a number of the recordings were made 'live'; tempi and hence duration are dependent on the acoustics of the hall. To throw out a version for being too slow or too fast regardless of acoustic conditions is rather brutal tool.

[Alison]

What - no Haitink? No Manze? No Hickox? How can this be a complete review of the best recordings of the VW Sea Symphony if these three recordings are hardly mentioned?

and Haitink best of all of course

[Roger Webb]

and Haitink best of all of course

And, I think, chosen as the preferred version on BaL last time....or was it the time before last, time flies!

Edit. Just found it. Atlanta SO/Spano in 2007 and LPO/Haitink in 2000 (with Boult '68 a close 2nd).

[Maclintick]

Professional musicians have moved from accepting amateur Choral Societies to preferring to work with smaller groups of higher quality. For instance the wide tent of the 100+Bournemouth Municipal Choir has morphed into the 70+ Bournemouth Symphony Chorus.

That may well be the case in Bournemouth, Ed, but I can assure you that large highly capable amateur choirs of 100-150 or more are not uncommon in London, esp. at the Proms, where it’s possible to merge 2 or more choruses for a Mahler 8 or Brian Gothic, for instance.

[Pulcinella]

And, I think, chosen as the preferred version on BaL last time....or was it the time before last, time flies!

Edit. Just found it. Atlanta SO/Spano in 2007 and LPO/Haitink in 2000 (with Boult '68 a close 2nd).

Roger: Given for us by Darloboy in a post on 02/04/2024.

[Roger Webb]

Roger: Given for us by Darloboy in a post on 02/04/2024.

Ah, been out of circulation for a while as you know, so it passed me by.... apologies to him.

[edashtav]

That may well be the case in Bournemouth, Ed, but I can assure you that large highly capable amateur choirs of 100-150 or more are not uncommon in London, esp. at the Proms, where it’s possible to merge 2 or more choruses for a Mahler 8 or Brian Gothic, for instance.

Often 'stiffened' by the BBC SINGERS.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The label carrying this recording is an expensive boutique label here as well. As for the complaints about the change of time, I like your solution of having a glass of wine while listening to the replay

I was thinking the same thing. Respect to any one prepared to ‘fess up to taking a glass during the old transmission time and doubly so if they’re in Chicago where it would have been 04.30.(or maybe 03.30 as the clocks have just gone forward )

[LMcD]

When I used the words, I was ignorant that their use in an English context is more sarcastic than the idiom's meaning in French!

Perhaps best translated as 'Well, that IS a surprise, I must say'

[edashtav]

Perhaps best translated as 'Well, that IS a surprise, I must say'

[LMcD]

I don't know whether Elgar's 1st symphony has been the subject of BaL since 2007, but on that occasion the 'winner' was also a live recording by a German orchestra - the Staatskapelle Dresden under Colin Davis.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Often 'stiffened' by the BBC SINGERS.

Didn't seem correct to me - combining London (or other major) symphonic choirs seems to work well enough - I haven't noticed the BBC Singers listed as participants - even, for example, in the 50th anniversary of the BBC SO concert in the RAH in November 1980 - a high profile event with invited guests - politicians etc.

Looking at the proms archive, the BBC Singers were listed in the 1975 performance but not in eight others between 1986 and 2018. Not in the Gothic Symphony in 2011. Not in 6 of the 9 War Requiem performances (but were in the 1976, 1964, 1963).
Given the size of two choruses with memberships exceeding 100, maybe it would seem overkill and an extra expense to use up their contracted hours for such a large work, already assigned to capable forces.

The BBC Singers do sing in the Last Night - but then its a representational concert, televised far and wide, for The BBC Proms.

[oliver sudden]

Perhaps best translated as 'Well, that IS a surprise, I must say'

If I say “tiens quelle surprise voilà le hallebardier !” will anyone here recognise it?