Sinfonia Antartica

[vinteuil]

To continue this off-piste side-track...

Here's RVW to Alan Frank at OUP: not Hubert Foss - I was wrong but can admit it, which is more than RVW can. Frank has told him that "the pundits at the Radio Times" (an early form of this forum, perhaps?) have pointed out that Antarctica is Latin, Sinfonia Italian:

"I think we will stick to 'Antarctica', even if it is bad Italian. It ought to be good and it is their fault if it is not. I named it 'Sinfonia' on the lines of the 'Sinfonia Domestica', though I hope the work has no other likeness to that!"

That is dated 31 December 1952 (I was 21 days old) but he had changed his mind by 6 January, because Frank notified New York that the title was now correct Italian.

...indeed - by 5 January, as in his letter to Roy Douglas, as in my #245 and attachment supra.

,

[Pabmusic]

...indeed - by 5 January, as in his letter to Roy Douglas, as in my #245 and attachment supra.

,

Indeed. Thank you.

[LMcD]

May I also thank those who have cleared up a matter which has hitherto puzzled me somewhat. I seem to have unwittingly acquired 3 recordings of the 7th: Handley, Boult (1953) and Barbirolli (1956), happily all with different couplings.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Posts moved as requested from the Snob Thread.

Perhaps this might make for an opportunity for comments on other features of the work than its spelling and numbering

[Boilk]

[Bryn]

There are recordings of the complete film music available, too. Links are a pain to include when using this 'smart phone' but the CDs can easily be found.

[Barbirollians]

Not my favourite VW symphony - but Barbirolli , Boult ( EMI I don't have his Decca account) and Haitink are all excellent IMO.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are recordings of the complete film music available, too. Links are a pain to include when using this 'smart phone' but the CDs can easily be found.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vaughan-Williams-Scott-Antartica-Complete/dp/B072FCLFMX

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sinfonia-Antartica-Antarctic-Vaughan-Williams/dp/B002CPD57Q

[MrGongGong]

How do you feel about 'Sinfonia Antarctica'?

It's not music?

The wind machine, I mean, though it does become music by appearing in the context of the performance thus proving what Cage said
RVW (unlike Max) never went there.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not my favourite VW symphony - but Barbirolli , Boult ( EMI I don't have his Decca account) and Haitink are all excellent IMO.

The earlier Boult is spoilt by the climactic Tamtam crash sounding like someone's dropped a tea tray. In addition to the recordings you mention, I have Slatkin, Previn, and Handley (and the earlier Boult).

I think that it is a fantastic work, showing the ever-adventurous composer discovering new modes, new combinations of modes, and new timbres and absorbing these into his older ways of using sound. I think that his own explorations in this (his second Pastoral Symphony) were a lot more fruitful and inspiring than those of Scott - but the film associations can be misleading. This isn't about any human; it's that unique, unpeopled landscape that seems to have made him realize that the material for the film was capable of holding treatment in its own purely Musical terms - there could never be Joanna Godden or 49th Parallel Symphonies; the Music for those films just don't hold symphonic potential. This material cried out for it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's not music?

The wind machine, I mean, though it does become music by appearing in the context of the performance thus proving what Cage said
RVW (unlike Max) never went there.

Ah - but Einstein never left Earth.

[Pabmusic]

...Perhaps this might make for an opportunity for comments on other features of the work than its spelling and numbering

But can we discuss the numbering of Dvorak's symphonies instead?

[MrGongGong]

Ah - but Einstein never left Earth.

True, but i'm sure he once went to the beach (or was it Beethoven who never saw the sea ?)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But can we discuss the numbering of Dvorak's symphonies instead?

Nine!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

True, but i'm sure he once went to the beach (or was it Beethoven who never saw the sea ?)

Quite a good Go-Go dancer, too - a rival for Galileo's Fandango moves.