A London Symphony - 100th anniversary

[Beef Oven!]

Thursday 27th March marks 100 years since the first performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 2, A London Symphony. If you have the original version, recorded by Richard Hickox on Chandos, it would be a good opportunity to give it a spin.

Thanks for the reminder.

Today I'll be fitting in the Hickox original version and the (for me) obligatory Boult(s).

I have attended a concert of the original - a Proms concert? Can't remember.

edit: Just read Petrushka's post #8. 2005 seems about the time that I attended a performance, so I must have been at this gig.

[Barbirollians]

I agree. Having experienced a couple of truly appalling concerts conducted by Elder in the '80s (one of them the only occasion when I've left a concert at the interval) I had always avoided his work. Then, when this London Symphony first appeared, I heard the second Movement on CD Review and was utterly captivated. One of the very best recordings of the work.


(His Apostles is pretty damn fine, too!)

I was at the concert when it was recorded and I was delighted when they released it . Znaider played the Elgar Concerto too at the end of his year of performances and I felt it was a shame he had recorded it at the start rather than the end of that year .

[Barbirollians]

Listened to the Hickox original version tonight - a very fine recording and a remainder what a sad loss his early death was to music .

[gurnemanz]

1814 yields Gretchen am Spinnrade, 1914 Stanford Irish Rhapsody No 1, Elgar Sospiri & Carillon, Debussy Berceuse heroique, Delius North Country Sketches, Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten, Nielsen Serenata in Vano, Sibelius 5th Symphony & Oceanides, Busoni Arlecchino, Holst The Planets, Ravel 2 Hebrew songs, Bridge Summer, Bartok The Wooden Prince & 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Kodaly Sonata for violin and cello, Stravinsky Le Rossignol, Bax Piano Quintet, Webern 3 Little Pieces for cello and piano, Prokofiev 1st Vln Concerto, The Ugly Duckling, & Scythian Suite.

Not too bad a year then??

Thanks for that research. My father who died five years ago would have been 100 in April. It struck me that your list would provide a nice way to celebrate this event by giving them all a listen - the ones I have at least, starting tomorrow with Frau ohne Schatten at ROH.

[Pabmusic]

1814 yields Gretchen am Spinnrade, 1914 Stanford Irish Rhapsody No 1, Elgar Sospiri & Carillon, Debussy Berceuse heroique, Delius North Country Sketches, Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten, Nielsen Serenata in Vano, Sibelius 5th Symphony & Oceanides, Busoni Arlecchino, Holst The Planets, Ravel 2 Hebrew songs, Bridge Summer, Bartok The Wooden Prince & 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Kodaly Sonata for violin and cello, Stravinsky Le Rossignol, Bax Piano Quintet, Webern 3 Little Pieces for cello and piano, Prokofiev 1st Vln Concerto, The Ugly Duckling, & Scythian Suite.

Not too bad a year then??

Oh dear. February 27th, 1914, the first professional concert conducted by Adrian Boult, with the first performance of George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow. Butterworth was of course the dedicatee of the London Symphony and one of those who reconstructed the lost score.

[aeolium]

In 2012 the Cheltenham Music Festival had a series of themed concerts based on specific years of the First World War (tied in with other items such as lectures, poetry and screenings of films from those years). The 1914 concert included Ravel's piano trio, Janacek's violin sonata, Joplin's Magnetic Rag and the Webern 3 pieces for cello and piano. The Nielsen Serenata in Vano is a lovely work.

[cloughie]

A quick check of my listings shows I have the riches below - RVW2 has fared well on record!
PO Arwel-Hughes
BoSO Bakels
HO Barbirolli (50s)
HO Barbirolli (60s)
LPO Boult (50s)
LPO Boult (50s)
BBCSO Davis A
LPO Haitink
LPO Handley
RLPO Handley
LPO Norrington
RPO Previn
LSO Previn
PO Slatkin
LSO Thomson

My favourites are historically HO Barbirolli (60s) and LPO Boult (50s) and later LSO Thomson but wouldn't part with any of the above and would be tempted to add Elder and if he does record it Manze whose recent RVW has been impressive.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

would be tempted to add ... if he does record it Manze whose recent RVW has been impressive.

Manze's ongoing RVW Symphony cycle has been wonderful; if he doesn't record it, it will be a great opportunity missed.

[BBMmk2]

I certainly hope he does record them!

[Roehre]

Oh dear. February 27th, 1914, the first professional concert conducted by Adrian Boult, with the first performance of George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow. Butterworth was of course the dedicatee of the London Symphony and one of those who reconstructed the lost score.

A mix up of composers with the surname Butterworth here?
George Butterworth, killed in the Great War, and Arthur, a composer still alive and kicking (and much neglected IMHO)?

[Sir Velo]

A mix up of composers with the surname Butterworth here?
George Butterworth, killed in the Great War, and Arthur, a composer still alive and kicking (and much neglected IMHO)?

Didn't George Butterworth assist in the reconstruction of the score after it went missing in 1914 after RVW sent the original full score to Fritz Busch, then in Germany? The composer with the assistance of Geoffrey Toye, Butterworth and the critic E. J. Dent, reconstructed the score from the orchestral parts, and the reconstruction was performed on 11 February 1915 by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra under Dan Godfrey.

[Roehre]

Didn't George Butterworth assist in the reconstruction of the score after it went missing in 1914 after RVW sent the original full score to Fritz Busch, then in Germany? The composer with the assistance of Geoffrey Toye, Butterworth and the critic E. J. Dent, reconstructed the score from the orchestral parts, and the reconstruction was performed on 11 February 1915 by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra under Dan Godfrey.

Yes of course, I was thinking of the reconstruction which was needed to prepare the present score of the original 1913 version of the London. I myself think of the Toye-Butterworth-Dent work more in terms of rewriting, putting together or repairing the score rather than reconstructing (as no bits were missing), but these terms are obviously almost interchangeable..

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wood
Boult 1950s
Barbirolli 1950s x3 (don't ask)
Barbirolli 1960s
Boult 1960s
LSO Previn
RLPO Handley
LSO Hickox
I also have Phantom of the Opera. Does that count?

[DublinJimbo]

[...] would be tempted to add ... Manze whose recent RVW has been impressive.

Certainly, that Prom consisting of the 4th, 5th and 6th was masterly.

[amateur51]

Certainly, that Prom consisting of the 4th, 5th and 6th was masterly.

A memorable evening indeed