Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Sergeant Rock]

I paid about 22 euros each (in solid guilders and with a minimum income myself  ), making about 200 euros / 260 USD / for the whole bunch. 

Ah, those were the days, my friend    I don't even want to figure out how much my collection cost me.

Sarge

[Christo]

Ah, those were the days, my friend    I don't even want to figure out how much my collection cost me.

A modest estimate could be: [Number of cds] times €10 each = total cost in €.  Making, in my case, about €50.000 for just one wall. Still far less than what I had to pay for the other walls here around. 

[Mirror Image]

They are. I bought them one by one, at their release, back in the 1980s and 1990s. They were only the third cycle available then, after Boult and Previn, and a huge leap forward in terms of sound. I paid about 22 euros each (in solid guilders and with a minimum income myself  ), making about 200 euros / 260 USD / for the whole bunch. 

Yikes! Well I shouldn't be complaining about the price of my set then! I only paid $40, which is well below asking price on Amazon right now.

[Scion7]

Yes, ol' Rafe excelled in making one think you are standing in a grassture.

That's where cows hang out - a grassture.

[TheGSMoeller]

Yes, ol' Rafe excelled in making one think you are standing in a grassture.

That's where cows hang out - a grassture.

What would consider to be RVW's most grassture-esque piece?

[TheGSMoeller]

Thomson's set is quite nice, but I still love my Slatkin set. I think these are the best recordings Slatkin has made. Thomson creates a large and authoritative sound, compared to Slatkin which is more refined with tremendous clarity. I prefer the latter for my RVW. The set currently contains my favorite performances of #1, #4, #8 and #9.

It's available in this cheap reissue set.

[asin]B0056K4VUY[/asin]

[Scion7]

What would consider to be RVW's most grassture-esque piece?

Well, for pure bucolic beauty, I would say A Pastoral Symphony, The Lark Ascending, The Wasps, ... Fen Country, and probably some of the various songs (I've only heard a few) are good examples.   There might be unpublished works that also address it - don't have a biography of him, so don't know the status of any manuscripts in a library/museum that to date haven't been performed or recorded.

For the most part, I think he kept the country out of his (few) chamber pieces.

[Karl Henning]

That's where cows hang out - a grassture.

Ah, memories. Saw that in a Peanuts strip in the '60s.

[Scion7]

Yeah - I "John Williams'd" it.   

[Karl Henning]

Hah!

[snyprrr]

I was hoping to get a discussion started on the Romance (slow movement) from SQ 2. The textures here get so thick as to defy most players' intonational instincts,... I don't know, may he meeeant it that way. Would someone please set me straight on this most maddening of beautiful slow movements.

I mean, I get the whole Tudor-ish thing, the fourths and fifths,... is it Purcell?,... or is it RVW? Still, does anyone notice the thickness at parts, the almost, apparently willful complexity? Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful,... is it a performance issue?

[cilgwyn]

Have you heard Bernstein's performance of the 4th? Sarge turned me onto that performance and all I have say is wow.

Actually,I didn't JUST 'make a note' of you're suggestion,Mirror Image;I downloaded it (as soon as I found it) from Amazon! (The download also included Bernstein conducting Tchaikovsky's Sixth,again with the NYPO,which I haven't listened to yet;but I'm looking forward to hear what he made of it!)
A very exciting performance & you're suggestion 'worked',I DID enjoy it!!!! A first for me! But come to think of it,having listened to Bernstein conducting William Schuman,the sound world of VW's toughest symphony doesn't seem too distant (in a way!). Not saying VW sounds like Schuman,but there's the same sinewy propulsiveness there,somewhere & who better to convert me to VW's Fourth than the conductor of,possibly (probably) the greatest recording of Schuman's marvellous fifth?
  My only disappointment......that I can't follow this up with Bernstein in VW's Sixth (did he ever conduct it?).

Thanks Mirror Image (and Sarge?!)! This might even be a favourite,now!!!!

[Mirror Image]

Actually,I didn't JUST 'make a note' of you're suggestion,Mirror Image;I downloaded it (as soon as I found it) from Amazon! (The download also included Bernstein conducting Tchaikovsky's Sixth,again with the NYPO,which I haven't listened to yet;but I'm looking forward to hear what he made of it!)
A very exciting performance & you're suggestion 'worked',I DID enjoy it!!!! A first for me! But come to think of it,having listened to Bernstein conducting William Schuman,the sound world of VW's toughest symphony doesn't seem too distant (in a way!). Not saying VW sounds like Schuman,but there's the same sinewy propulsiveness there,somewhere & who better to convert me to VW's Fourth than the conductor of,possibly (probably) the greatest recording of Schuman's marvellous fifth?
  My only disappointment......that I can't follow this up with Bernstein in VW's Sixth (did he ever conduct it?).

Thanks Mirror Image (and Sarge?!)! This might even be a favourite,now!!!!

Glad you enjoyed it my friend! It is, no doubt, a remarkably good performance. I'm still torn between picking a favorite 4th at the moment: I like Boult (EMI), Thomson, and Bernstein. Yes, Bernstein is at home in conducting this kind of music. Bernstein's performance of Schuman's symphonies is out-of-this-world excellent, but that's for another thread. I wish Bernstein conducted Vaughan Williams' 6th as well, he would be a natural in it, but I also think he would do well with Job, but that work opposes a lot of challenges for a conductor of his heart-on-sleeve, hard-hitting approach.

[Scion7]

I grabbed the CD by the Nash Ensemble playing the 'cupboarded' chamber pieces - the string quartet, the piano quintet and the quintet in D for clarinet-horn-piano-cello-violin are pretty solid.  Enjoying the themes in the Quintet in D - a little Brahms, a little Weber, a little Schubert, I think.  A good one to hear in concert.

[cilgwyn]

Glad you enjoyed it my friend! It is, no doubt, a remarkably good performance. I'm still torn between picking a favorite 4th at the moment: I like Boult (EMI), Thomson, and Bernstein. Yes, Bernstein is at home in conducting this kind of music. Bernstein's performance of Schuman's symphonies is out-of-this-world excellent, but that's for another thread. I wish Bernstein conducted Vaughan Williams' 6th as well, he would be a natural in it, but I also think he would do well with Job, but that work opposes a lot of challenges for a conductor of his heart-on-sleeve, hard-hitting approach.

And very good sound quality,too. Although,I have only listened on headphones! Bernstein conducting Job? One can dream,eh?!!!
I'll have to 'dig' my Boult Four out & compare,now!
Incidentally,I'm beginning to wish I hadn't sent VW's own recording of the Fourth,down to the charity shop,now!
I can't very well ask for it back,can I?!!

[Mirror Image]

And very good sound quality,too. Although,I have only listened on headphones! Bernstein conducting Job? One can dream,eh?!!!
I'll have to 'dig' my Boult Four out & compare,now!
Incidentally,I'm beginning to wish I hadn't sent VW's own recording of the Fourth,down to the charity shop,now!
I can't very well ask for it back,can I?!!

Yes, it sounds really good. I haven't heard RVW's own recording of the 4th. I'm not much for mono sound so that's why I stay away from these kinds of historical performances.

[Christo]

Yes, it sounds really good. I haven't heard RVW's own recording of the 4th. I'm not much for mono sound so that's why I stay away from these kinds of historical performances.

It's not just mono, it's canned.  Terrific performance though - for what we can make of it.

[cilgwyn]

Yes,I haven't heard it for a while,but I seem to remember it was poor even for it's day! Rough,harsh & constricted & a bit boxy,to say the least. I had the Dutton & maybe it sounds better in some other incarnation. Although,I just looked at a review of the Naxos reissue on Musicweb & apparently,that one sounds worse. Dutton do use what some describe as an 'interventionist' approach? I personally prefer a little hiss & even a bit of crackle with mine. Too much intervention & the sound seems constricted & dare I say,'dead'!
I like early electrical recordings,myself,but I've heard recordings from the late 20's that sounded better! I don't expect you could too much to improve a recording like that,really?
(What transfer did you hear Christo?)

[eyeresist]

Listening to the second string quartet this morning, my imagination kept inserting a quite distinct line for doublebass (e.g. for a low drone during the opening passage). I thought it worked really well! I wonder if the quartets are in a way frustrated symphonies, as late romantic and early modern chamber works often sound to me.

[snyprrr]

String Quartet No.2

No one took the bite earlier on this Topic, but I've been comparing, and the Nash Ensemble on Hyperion really just owns this piece. As I commented before, both the Medicis and the Music Group of London struggle to make sense of the central Romance, which is to be played without vibrato, like a Tudor viol section. The Nash members don't try to make every voice heard, which leads to great thickness and intonational difficulties that the Nash judiciously curtail. And they do it with the quickest timing, which is impressive.

Elsewhere, as in the opening viola fanfare of the first movement, the viola snakes in and out with volume swells, a very nice effect, and the rest join in without being too declamatory (a hindrance in the EMI).

The Hyperion duplicates everything on the EMI disc and basically negates that album completely. Burn it with fire! I can't imagine the Naxos sound or performance surpassing this most special gift. And the Medicis amount to a good compare, though they also offer the SQ 1.

The Violin Sonata is almost a different animal from the Hugh Bean on EMI, so smooth and seductive is it. The opening alone tells us this is going to be a much better ride. This VC certainly sits at the apex of mid-century traditional Classical Music.

I'd say that this cd is the one-stop-n-shop for RVW Chamber Music. I personally don't need to delve in the double set of earlier works, and this one does totally discount the other EMI set (which I am frankly glad to cash in: there was just something lacking in the SQ), so please, take it from me, you probably won't ever hear these pieces played with as much passion and perfection. The Romance makes my friend cry, it's that good!