Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Opus106]

Cross-posted from here.


[Click on image for more]

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge & Dmitri Ensemble, Cambridge, Sir David Willcocks

Both the Folk Songs of the Four Seasons and this arrangement of In Windsor Forest are world premiere recordings. The Folk Songs of the Four Seasons is a substantial work by Vaughan Williams, over 40 minutes long, for women's chorus and orchestra. It is the most significant of his works never to have been recorded in any format.

The Folk Songs of the Four Seasons was commissioned by the Women's Institute and first performed in 1950. The work has a Prologue and four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The coupling is the rare arrangement for women's voices, by Guthrie Foote and Vaughan Williams, of the Cantata In Windsor Forest based on choruses from the opera Sir John in Love.

This new Albion recording is issued to mark the 90th birthday of Sir David Willcocks on 30 December, 2009. Sir David is world famous for his recordings for EMI and for his work at King's College, Cambridge and the Bach Choir. For Sir David to record another major Vaughan Williams disc at the age of almost 90 is remarkable in itself and will ensure national and international interest in this recording.

[vandermolen]

I thought that I knew most of Vaughan Williams's music quite well but I recently discovered how good his 'Story of a Flemish Farm Suite' is. This is film music and is on Vol 3 of the Chandos series of VW's film music and also on an excellent earlier release on Marco Polo (surely a candidate for a Naxos reissue). VW himself said that to call a piece of music a 'Suite' was to damn it to extinction but, as Michael Kennedy says in the booklet notes in the Chandos release, this is an unfairly neglected score.  It contains some really good music - the 'Dead Man's Kit' episode, for one, contains some music highly reminiscent of the contemporaneous music for the epic 6th Symphony - as well as a beautiful lyrical episode - well worth looking out for.

[canninator]

Okay, so I'll post this here rather than the recordings I am considering thread.

To preface, I know RVW pretty well, I grew up with a lot of it. This means I don't have many recordings in the same way I don't buy a Beatles album.

The recent EMI box set got me thinking I might change this situation but then I thought do I need the box?

The box: Pros, complete, good value for money, Cons: ?recording quality/mastering (I don't know, what's it like), poor packaging/notes.

I'm not a big opera fan so do I need the box, I might listen to Hugh the Drover once for the hell of it? Should I go for a symphony cycle (but which one...Handley, Previn, Boult Stereo or Mono) plus choral and vocal works (the Corydon Singers collections on Hyperion look tempting), and pick up anything else I want on Naxos (songs) or EMI/elsewhere (other orchestral/chamber works)?

So my question. Is the box just to good to look over or would I be better off cherry picking elsewhere if I don't want the operas? I'm only going to want to buy this stuff once, I don't care for having multiple recordings, I just want what I have to be dependable .

Have at it you beautiful people.

[vandermolen]

Okay, so I'll post this here rather than the recordings I am considering thread.

To preface, I know RVW pretty well, I grew up with a lot of it. This means I don't have many recordings in the same way I don't buy a Beatles album.

The recent EMI box set got me thinking I might change this situation but then I thought do I need the box?

The box: Pros, complete, good value for money, Cons: ?recording quality/mastering (I don't know, what's it like), poor packaging/notes.

I'm not a big opera fan so do I need the box, I might listen to Hugh the Drover once for the hell of it? Should I go for a symphony cycle (but which one...Handley, Previn, Boult Stereo or Mono) plus choral and vocal works (the Corydon Singers collections on Hyperion look tempting), and pick up anything else I want on Naxos (songs) or EMI/elsewhere (other orchestral/chamber works)?

So my question. Is the box just to good to look over or would I be better off cherry picking elsewhere if I don't want the operas? I'm only going to want to buy this stuff once, I don't care for having multiple recordings, I just want what I have to be dependable .

Have at it you beautiful people.

I'd go for the box - the notes are perfunctory, but it has everything there at a bargain price. I am not an opera fan either and have never listened to Hugh the Drover, Sir John in Love or The Poisoned Kiss - but I have learnt to love The Pilgrim's Progress (and seeing Richard Hickox conduct it on my birthday last year was perhaps the greatest concert going experience of my life). 'Riders to the Sea' is also a moving and powerful work.  In the box you get Vernon Handley's very sound performances of the symphonies and a great performance of Job + you may discover great works that you would otherwise not know (maybe you know them anyway) like Epithalamion and Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm. Other highlights are Sancta Civitas and Dona Nobis Pacem.  I doubt that you would regret the purchase and you can always read background info online or in a good biography.

[canninator]

I'd go for the box - the notes are perfunctory, but it has everything there at a bargain price. I am not an opera fan either and have never listened to Hugh the Drover, Sir John in Love or The Poisoned Kiss - but I have learnt to love The Pilgrim's Progress (and seeing Richard Hickox conduct it on my birthday last year was perhaps the greatest concert going experience of my life). 'Riders to the Sea' is also a moving and powerful work.  In the box you get Vernon Handley's very sound performances of the symphonies and a great performance of Job + you may discover great works that you would otherwise not know (maybe you know them anyway) like Epithalamion and Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm. Other highlights are Sancta Civitas and Dona Nobis Pacem.  I doubt that you would regret the purchase and you can always read background info online or in a good biography.

Yours is certainly an opinion I would respect on this matter and seeing as you are the only person who harkened to my deep throated cry of despair I shall place the order now in your honor and on your visa 

[karlhenning]

I'd go for the box

Chances are, I will, too, at some point.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Chances are, I will, too, at some point.

Where's your beard, Karl?   That is you, isn't it?

[karlhenning]

First shave in 15 years.  Worth it just for the double-takes here in the office 

[vandermolen]

Yours is certainly an opinion I would respect on this matter and seeing as you are the only person who harkened to my deep throated cry of despair I shall place the order now in your honor and on your visa 

Thank you! Let us know how you get on with the box - happy listening.

[tjguitar]

I have the Handley box and these earlier Handley recordings:

[Lethevich]

Interesting! I didn't know about the earlier recordings, although their existence makes sense - that RLPO cycle couldn't have come out of the blue. How do they compare with the later recordings?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

First shave in 15 years.  Worth it just for the double-takes here in the office 

(Farewell 1960s, welcome 21st century...)

[vandermolen]

Interesting! I didn't know about the earlier recordings, although their existence makes sense - that RLPO cycle couldn't have come out of the blue. How do they compare with the later recordings?

I wrote a review on the Amazon UK site which might help:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vaughan-Williams-Symphony-Nos-Ralph/dp/B000BTDLRE/ref=cm_cr-mr-title


I've been listening to Stanley Bate's Viola Concerto which is IMHO a 'must-have' CD if you like Vaughan Williams's music.

Also a plug for Arthur Butterworth's 4th Symphony which has given me great pleasure too.

[karlhenning]

(Farewell 1960s, welcome 21st century...)

Oh, chances are I'll grow the beard back in for the winter 

[Benji]

Interesting! I didn't know about the earlier recordings, although their existence makes sense - that RLPO cycle couldn't have come out of the blue. How do they compare with the later recordings?

Ok, it's a month later, but i've not been around you know! In a nutshell, I much prefer the warmer earlier version of the 2nd (warmer not only because of the analogue recording but I imagine much assisted by it), but the 6th is less successful in the earlier attempt I feel. That London Symphony is my favourite recording of the work now that I think about it. If you haven't already, do go grab a copy. 

[vandermolen]

Ok, it's a month later, but i've not been around you know! In a nutshell, I much prefer the warmer earlier version of the 2nd (warmer not only because of the analogue recording but I imagine much assisted by it), but the 6th is less successful in the earlier attempt I feel. That London Symphony is my favourite recording of the work now that I think about it. If you haven't already, do go grab a copy. 

Totally agree with you.

[Dana]

      Question from a longtime VW fan - what do you all see in Flos Campi? My orchestra played it about 5-6 months ago, and we all came off with the impression that it was a bit of a misty odd duck. It made me think most of the 3rd symphony, but somehow it came off a bit shapeless (I feel obligated to report that our conductor is a huge fan of Beethoven and Mahler, and I feel like his mind is less apt to this kind of music).

[Lethevich]

It's thoroughly atypical to the rest of his music - it has the perfumed qualities of Bantock, but filtered through the style of Holst (who was himself a bit of a mystic). I'm not sure its reasons for coming about - I'm sure others could comment - but for what it is, I find it magical. The only work in RVW's output which I find comes close is the Serenade to Music - with its meandering archings, but Flos Campi adds to this a rather more theatrical quality which might seem at odds with such subtle music. It's not as perfectly composed as most of his other work, lacking an "inevitability" built into the structure, but once familiar I found it satisfying throughout, but admittedly not fully able to explain why. It's certainly a strange bird.

[vandermolen]

Flos Campi has a rarefied atmosphere - I prefer it to the Serenade for Music, which is one of my least favourite works of Vaughan Williams (together with the Wasps Overture - which I have heard too many times).  Of lesser known works, the Fantasia on the Old 104th is one of my favourites - a great score - do look it out if you like VW but don't know it. it is an orchestral/choral work with a large piano part.

[Guido]

What? You don't like the Serenade? Surely it's like Barber's adagio in that however many times it gets played, its still as fresh and beautiful... I guess not for everybody!

The Wasps is awful though!

Has anyone heard the new Clare Choir/Willcocks CD of Vaughan Williams world premieres? (large late pieces whose names escape me at the moment). I've just ordered it in order to review it, but it hasn't recieved any other reviews at all as far as I can see.