Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[M forever]

Indeed i am the Asian reincarnation of Spock.

I didn't say reincarnation. But your haircut (at least from the distance, in the video) looks rather spocky, wouldn't you agree?
Who is the cute girl playing the 2nd oboe? Is she your girlfriend?

i dont understand why you are so pissed with our conductor?

Having his head in the score half the time is a very basic mistake and deadly sin for a conductor. He doesn't necessarily have to conduct without a score, but he should know well enough what comes next that he doesn't have to look into the score all the time. And actually, he shouldn't just know what comes next. A good conductor is able to "see" the music from the first to the last note. Otherwise, he can't give a coherent, organic interpretation but will just stumble from one way point to the next. The shhhh!!! finger in front of his mouth all the time is not a good thing either. He should be able to instill a feeling for the right dynamics just by the way he conducts. I am sure you guys had quite a few rehearsals, so that could have been clarified. Overall, he is not a bad, but very crampy and unfluent time beater. He clicks from one point in time to the next without fluency and pulse.
I hope you will get the chance sometime to work with a real conductor. Then you will understand the difference. Hopefully.
But for now, as I said, for a youth orchestra, that is really quite good. The very exposed solo passages in the viola, english horn, horn, etc are played with self-confidence. I like that.

[hautbois]

Believe me, for a youth orchestra, in Malaysia, and probably even South East Asia, you can't ask for more than that. He was principal percussionist for Kees Bakel's Bournemouth Symphony recording of the same piece (which one should really check out!), and for very various other reasons, knows this piece quite well. I understand exactly what you are trying to say, but believe me, we are very grateful to have him do this, because there ain't that many people in Malaysia who is able to pull of this job and command respect from youngsters at the same time.

No, she is not my girlfriend.  And no...i dont really think she is cute....

Howard

[M forever]

O course you can ask for more than that. Don't put yourself and your friends down. I understand whatever else is available may be much worse, but still, you deserve better.

So, are there any girls in the orchestra you find cute...or boys?

[hautbois]

O course you can ask for more than that. Don't put yourself and your friends down. I understand whatever else is available may be much worse, but still, you deserve better.

So, are there any girls in the orchestra you find cute...or boys?

I am starting to detect a certain pedophilic aura from M....

Howard

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am starting to detect a certain pedophilic aura from M....

He is just a man with wide interests and infinite curiosity.

I think.

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Yes indeed, principal oboe on this video. 

Oh, RVW #2/02. Lento!!!, my absolute favorite piece of RVW. I even more like the first edition of it (which is on Chandos/Hockox)
I'll have to download this one at all once first, because the youtube streaming is stuttering like hell (16 kbyte/s, too slow for streaming). Looking forward...

[M forever]

I am starting to detect a certain pedophilic aura from M....

Howard

What has pedophilia to do with asking you if there is anyone in the orchestra you would like to invite to go out for ice cream? That's a perfectly innocent question. Many of the girlfriends I had, especially when I was that ae, I met in orchestras.

[hautbois]

What has pedophilia to do with asking you if there is anyone in the orchestra you would like to invite to go out for ice cream? That's a perfectly innocent question. Many of the girlfriends I had, especially when I was that ae, I met in orchestras.

Never mind M, i understand, i really do.  (Referring to the BOYS...)

Howard

[drogulus]

Believe me, for a youth orchestra, in Malaysia, and probably even South East Asia, you can't ask for more than that. He was principal percussionist for Kees Bakel's Bournemouth Symphony recording of the same piece (which one should really check out!), and for very various other reasons, knows this piece quite well. I understand exactly what you are trying to say, but believe me, we are very grateful to have him do this, because there ain't that many people in Malaysia who is able to pull of this job and command respect from youngsters at the same time.

     I don't doubt that you're lucky to have this conductor, and his familiarity with Vaughan Williams must have been invaluable to the performance. I would take M's comments seriously, though, especially about cute girls/boys etc. 

[M forever]

Never mind M, i understand, i really do.  (Referring to the BOYS...)

You certainly don't, because pedophilia has nothing to do with boys liking boys as such. Pedophilia is an abnormal sexual interest especially by much older persons, in young, immature children, which can be both boys and girls. I think the boys and girls in your orchestra are pretty much in the same general age bracket, so if you ask a girl (or boy) out, it has nothing to do with pedophilia. Nor does me asking whether you met anyone who interests you in the orchestra have anything to do with pedophilia since I am not interested in any in the young people there.
I just remembered nostalgically that when I was your age, one of the great things about playing in youth orchestras was that there were lots of nice, musically interested girls in my age bracket there.
Sorry to see you are so repressed that an innocent question triggers those reactions in you. Especially about the boy stuff. There is nothing wrong with boys liking boys. Maybe there is in your part of the world though.

[greg]

Pedophilia is an abnormal sexual interest especially by much older persons, in young, immature children, which can be both boys and girls.

I wonder what the cause for this is?.....

[Dundonnell]

Oh No!!!!

Please, please...not a discussion about Paedophilia(Pedophilia) in a thread about Ralph Vaughan Williams

It's just too much to bear!

I absolutely respect the right of members to have their say about what interests them but isn't there somewhere else on the site for this?

[greg]

good point 

[Dundonnell]

Thank You!!

[hautbois]

You certainly don't, because pedophilia has nothing to do with boys liking boys as such. Pedophilia is an abnormal sexual interest especially by much older persons, in young, immature children, which can be both boys and girls. I think the boys and girls in your orchestra are pretty much in the same general age bracket, so if you ask a girl (or boy) out, it has nothing to do with pedophilia. Nor does me asking whether you met anyone who interests you in the orchestra have anything to do with pedophilia since I am not interested in any in the young people there.
I just remembered nostalgically that when I was your age, one of the great things about playing in youth orchestras was that there were lots of nice, musically interested girls in my age bracket there.
Sorry to see you are so repressed that an innocent question triggers those reactions in you. Especially about the boy stuff. There is nothing wrong with boys liking boys. Maybe there is in your part of the world though.

Oh come on M, that was simply to trigger a good laugh here, no need to be so serious. I get what you mean, i think i will never be able to experience the same kind of "fun" that i have had in the youth orchestra in the future if i land myself a professional job. Not that it will not be better, but simply, making music for fun and only fun is something that can never be replaced by anything else.

Howard

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

I absolutely respect the right of members to have their say about what interests them but isn't there somewhere else on the site for this?

Exactly.

[scarpia]

Still working my way through Vaughan Williams symphonic works, from last too first.  The fifth symphony definitely has extended passages of great beauty.  There are stunning passages of what I interpret as modal harmony, with bittersweet dissonances, especially in the first and third movements.  Possibly the originality of these passages can be underestimated because they have been widely imitated in cinema music (the sort of soaring music that always appears in serious movies when the main character makes some tragic realization or falls under some deep sadness).  However, the framework of the symphony strikes me as lacking something.  The challenge of a symphony as I see it is to create movements which are vividly distinct, yet fit together.  I find there is too much uniformity of mood in the four movements to suit my taste, I find it lacking in contrast.  Haitink's recording is generally splendid.  Barbirolli's recording from the 60's is also very fine, with especially good audio engineering which gives the brass a weighty yet mellow presence, very well done.

I've also listened to the symphony #4 several times through, and this is an instance where Haitink and EMI falters, producing a recording which is altogether too strident and lacking in color.  Still, it is obvious that the first movement makes a striking impression.  The conclusion of the finale (the fugue) is also extraordinary, but much of what comes between hasn't impressed me yet.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Still working my way through Vaughan Williams symphonic works, from last two first. 

Thanks for sharing. I remember my own first hearings of these symphonies. My reactions were somewhat similar. While I do not dispute the "uniformity of mood" of the 5th, I don't feel it as a drawback, nor do I think the structure is necessarily lacking. The 5th seems to be deliberately static, and I have no problem with that.

The 4th I think is VW's best and one of the great 20th-c. symphonies, period. At first hearing it sounded like a dense unfriendly wall of sound, but I stuck with it. My first recording was Previn's (which is a bit too harsh and monochrome), but I later found better renderings (Bernstein and, so far my favorite, Berglund - non-UK conductors seem to excel with this piece).

[imperfection]

The Asian Youth Orchestra (based in Hong Kong) is also one of the best in that region. Good job though, you guys played well. 

[hautbois]

The Asian Youth Orchestra (based in Hong Kong) is also one of the best in that region. Good job though, you guys played well. 

Thankyou for your comment! In fact, some of our members were also members of the AYO, which gathers, performs, and tours annually.

Howard