Vaughan Williams, Ralph (1872-1958)

[Dave2002]

The Solent was performed once 19/6/1903 (ref. Michael Kennedy)

The theme from it as used in the 1st and 9th symphonies is very haunting. ( It opens the 2nd movement of no.9) Originally I believe the theme was played on clarinet but in no 9 it's on the Flugelhorn and it sounds very mysterious.

Dave 2002, stick with both symphonies, in time they will click. No.1 is long but in the last movement the music from "...Oh Thou transcendant" to the end is spellbinding. The 9th is a vast landscape of the inner(spiritual) and outer(landscape) worlds of existence. If you have ever travelled through Salisbury Plain around Stonehenge you might get a feeling for the brooding and expansive 1st movement. Thereafter the Saxophones and the Flugelhorn really give this symphony a unique and dark timbre. The ending as Percy Grainger remarked after the first US performance is cosmic.

VW 9 is IMHO, as religious a work as Bruckner 9.


FTC

We did the Stonehenge route a couple of times in the last few months. Odd to see the people going round the stones. Many years ago I went, and in those days you could actually go into the circle, and even
stand by the stones. Somewhere I should have some pictures - well maybe ....

[FoxyTheCat]

Yes the "Henge" is no longer a windswept, desolate place as it must have been in Hardy's or Constable's time or for that matter RVW's in the 1950's. It's now a World Heritage site , a money spinning enterprise.

No.9 is not about Stonehenge but it is influenced by Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, particularly the last phase of the book where Tess seeks refuge with Angel in the old temple. The "passing bell" in the 2nd movement could be a reference to her execution at Winchester Prison.

Although we need to keep in mind other fleeting references to Bach ( St Matthew Passion O Sacred head sore wounded) the music of No.9 is absolute and not programmatic, it's the last utterance of a very experienced and deeply philosophical composer.


Regards


FTC

[rallentando]

A link to both symphonies may be found in Toward the Unknown Region - VW's first setting of a Whitman poem, whose period of composition overlapped with the Sea Symphony. In Whitman he recognised a fellow-spirit, there was much correspondence in their lives, Williams' later experience in WWI matching Whitman's earlier in the American Civil War. His repect for the poet was lifelong. He declared as much in an interview just a month before his own death. To find strong emotional and thematic links between First and 9th Symphonies isn't, I think, being over-imaginative.

[EdgeleyRob]

I love all his symphonies , they are all so different from one another and the cycle is a true journey and reflection on the troubled history of the first half of the 20th century. The 9th is ultimately my favourite the ending maybe a glimpse of the end of life when the atoms that make us up return to the Cosmos whence they came.

I agree.I can't go more than a couple of days without a 'fix' of an RVW symphony.My favourie is currently no 9 (although this constantly changes).

[Auferstehen2]

I agree.I can't go more than a couple of days without a 'fix' of an RVW symphony.My favourie is currently no 9 (although this constantly changes).

Haven’t got there yet, ER!

My problem is once I’ve listened to a new work, and end up liking it, I tend to play it to death, so that I thoroughly absorb it. Having listened to Nos 2, 5 and now 3, I thought it a good idea to go back to No 2, which I’m really enjoying. It’s actually quite difficult to move on!

Mario

[BBMmk2]

I hope you going to try the Vernon Handley and Sir Andrew Davis cycles, Mario.

[Auferstehen2]

I hope you going to try the Vernon Handley and Sir Andrew Davis cycles, Mario.

Hello BBM!

You may have missed it earlier, but the 7-CD boxed set that I have, which includes RVW’s nine symphonies, together with the English Folk Song Suite, Flos Campi, Oboe Concerto, Greensleeves Fantasia (I have to say that, as a foreigner with limited music knowledge, I know of no other more “English” sounding piece of music than this), Serenade to Music, Partita for double string orchestra, Thomas Tallis Fantasia, “Dives and Lazarus” Five Variants and Job, are all conducted by Vernon Handley.

Only three symphonies so far heard, but good stuff all round!

Mario

[BBMmk2]

Ah rite!! I do hope yoou get tothose others soon. Sinfonia Antartica is something else!

[Suffolkcoastal]

More good news for RVW lovers, with the recording and release later this year of the early Fantasia for Piano & Orchestra by the pianist Mark Bebbington, which I read yesterday while browsing quickly through Gramophone. (Gramphone also provided a good giggle when one reviewer seemed to think that Brahms died in 1893 )

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/forgotten-vaughan-williams-work-to-be-recorded

Hopefully the last remaining early orchestral works from the period 1896-1906 will finally see the light of day soon: Serenade in A minor, Bucolic Suite, Symphonic Rhapsody, The Solent & Harnham Down.

[Roehre]

More good news for RVW lovers, with the recording and release later this year of the early Fantasia for Piano & Orchestra by the pianist Mark Bebbington, which I read yesterday while browsing quickly through Gramophone. (Gramphone also provided a good giggle when one reviewer seemed to think that Brahms died in 1893 )

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/forgotten-vaughan-williams-work-to-be-recorded

Hopefully the last remaining early orchestral works from the period 1896-1906 will finally see the light of day soon: Serenade in A minor, Bucolic Suite, Symphonic Rhapsody, The Solent & Harnham Down.

Thanks SFC, might have escaped my attention otherwise (though I trust someone on these boards would have mentioned it :-) )

[Auferstehen2]

We decided to spend Christmas in the UK this year with my wife’s family for the first time in a long time.

Just returned from a truly superb 2 weeks in London (boy, what joys and wonders that City holds), I picked up a copy of the BBC Music Magazine, the cover CD of which is Beethoven’s VC (with Menuhin and Whyte (who he?) recorded in 1948), and surprise, surprise, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with RVW conducting (recorded in 1936) - with no text - grrr!

So, should I interrupt my symphonic odyssey to learn this work?

Mario

[BBMmk2]

Very much so Auf2!! I find this quite a moving work!

[Sydney Grew]

Number 1 is very much sui generis. I would recommend starting with 2 or 5 as the most accessible.

Number one is the only one completed before the Great Descent of 1908.

[moeranbiogman]

'The Solent' is to be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates at this year's English Music Festival on 24th May.

[LMcD]

Can any Vaughan Williams/Barbirolli experts out there tell me whether these two CDs are identical in all respects, including the actual quality of the recording - thank you!
Halle/Barbirolli/Vaughan Williams 2nd and 8th symphonies: CDM 7 64197 2
do. Barbirolli Society CDSJB 1021