BaL 10.03.12 Vaughan Williams' Symphony no. 4 in F minor

[Panjandrum]

9:30 Piers Burton Page with a personal recommendation from recordings of Vaughan Williams' Symphony no. 4

Available versions:

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Paul Daniel
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

I know some conductors hum on the podium, but this is ridiculous.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I just cut and paste from the details of the box set, sometimes without checking all the details.

[verismissimo]

I only have the remarkable recording of Mitropoulos with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York (note to Eine Alpen).

It's on an ancient ten-inch LP with a wonderful photo-portrait of VW on the cover.

The photo by Karsh.

[Petrushka]

Sir Georg Solti gave a blistering account of the RVW 4 at a February 1978 LPO concert (second half, Holst's Planets). It was broadcast on R3 and would make a good candidate for issue on the LPO label.

[umslopogaas]

#18 verismissimo

This is ABR 4065, a ten inch Philips mono LP. I say this with complete confidence, because I have a copy. And now my attention is drawn to the photo of VW, a close-cropped head shot, on the cover, I can agree it is wonderful and though I didnt know it was by Karsh, and the sleeve doesnt seem to acknowledge this, I'm delighted to learn that it was.

[jayne lee wilson]

Handley, Boult, Thomson all great, but I suspect VW and the BBCSO will be hard to beat! First one I ever heard, on the World Records label borrowed from the local library. Paul Daniel is surprisingly taut and dramatic and weighty on Naxos with the BSO, really excellent!

[Beef Oven]

Handley, Boult, Thomson all great, but I suspect VW and the BBCSO will be hard to beat! First one I ever heard, on the World Records label borrowed from the local library. Paul Daniel is surprisingly taut and dramatic and weighty on Naxos with the BSO, really excellent!

My first RVW 4 was Handley on EMI (I came late!). Was at an amazing prom performance about 3 years ago, but can't remember the orchestra or conductor (possibly Andrew Davis, who I witnessed conducting a shockingly bad RVW 6 at the Barbican the previous year!).

Currently my fave RVW 4 is LSO & Hickox on Chandos SACD.

4 & 6 are possible desert islanders for me.

[Pabmusic]

It was very typical of RVW to make revisions to all his music, but there's one point in the F minor Symphony where it really does notice: the last note of the slow movement. The melody note (flute) was F until the mid-1950s, when RVW changed it to E natural (which is what is in the current scores). He said, "I always felt it was wrong, and I have taken 20 years trying to find the right note".

This means, of course, that the earlier recordings will have F, the later ones E. No doubt the programme will draw attention to this, but I like this sort of thing because it shows that (for one composer at least) his compositions were almost 'living' things.

[verismissimo]

#18 verismissimo
I didnt know it was by Karsh, and the sleeve doesnt seem to acknowledge this

I missed it to start with. On my copy, it's noted in italics at the bottom of the middle column.

[Alf-Prufrock]

Thanks

Can't, alas, oblige with "a long list", but this might give a glimpse of what might have been:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pEwhe-3GXU

Thanks, fhgl, for the video. I am surprised. I should never have suspected Butterworth to have wormed his way into Kleiber's consciousness like this.

Sorry to be off-topic.

[Roehre]

It was very typical of RVW to make revisions to all his music, but there's one point in the F minor Symphony where it really does notice: the last note of the slow movement. The melody note (flute) was F until the mid-1950s, when RVW changed it to E natural (which is what is in the current scores). He said, "I always felt it was wrong, and I have taken 20 years trying to find the right note".

This means, of course, that the earlier recordings will have F, the later ones E. No doubt the programme will draw attention to this, but I like this sort of thing because it shows that (for one composer at least) his compositions were almost 'living' things.

the letter to Adrian Boult (June 2nd 1956) in which RVW makes this amendment, was (partly) reproduced on the sleeve of Boult's 1969 recording of the work, and can be found in the booklet accompanying the Boult Symphonies 9LP set EMI-SLS 822too. Very moving.

[Barbirollians]

Handley, Boult, Thomson all great, but I suspect VW and the BBCSO will be hard to beat! First one I ever heard, on the World Records label borrowed from the local library. Paul Daniel is surprisingly taut and dramatic and weighty on Naxos with the BSO, really excellent!

I agree - a wonderful HMV Treasury LP with the composer's recording of No 4 coupled with Barbirolli and the Halle's wartime No 5 was my very lucky introduction to his symphonies .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have the LSO Previn set of the symphonies, but no. 4 has always seemed to me to be the weakest of his set, which surprises me, as this seems very much a work that Previn's style would suit.

[rauschwerk]

I have the LSO Previn set of the symphonies, but no. 4 has always seemed to me to be the weakest of his set, which surprises me, as this seems very much a work that Previn's style would suit.

That's an astonishing verdict. Previn, though, is certainly slow in the first movement: dotted minim about 86 instead of the composer's recommended 96. This does not help at all.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

That's an astonishing verdict. Previn, though, is certainly slow in the first movement: dotted minim about 86 instead of the composer's recommended 96. This does not help at all.

I don't find it "astonishing", rausch: I'd agree with it (except that I'd call it an "opinion" rather than a "verdict"). It's a fine performance of the Fourth, and that I admire; but, compared with Previn's readings of the other Symphonies in his set, it doesn't quite match that level of insight and communication. And this is surprising in that, of all the RVW Symphonies, the Fourth would seem to be the most closely "akin" to Previn's personality in the late '60s - and yet the Third and Fifth (works of a very different "character") receive performances unsurpassed since.

Another excellent BaL today, I thought: especially as I have all the "front runners" so I don't have to buy another CD.




... except that I liked what I heard from Paul Daniel, which I don't have! Ho-hum.