Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There is also a survey of recordings of Symphony 4. The composer's own is their first choice (not mine however) and they also praise the recordings by Richard Hickox and Vernon Handley as well as the classic version from Dmitri Mitropoulos. Paavo Berglund's is my own favourite. They say that Boult's EMI version is 'one to avoid' and I don't agree with that either.

I've got 3 different versions of the 4th (Berglund and Slatkin on CD, Bernstein on LP). I like all three of them, but if I had to choose one I'd probably go with Berglund.

[vandermolen]

I've got 3 different versions of the 4th (Berglund and Slatkin on CD, Bernstein on LP). I like all three of them, but if I had to choose one I'd probably go with Berglund.

BBC's 'Building a Library' on Radio 3 a few years ago recommended the Berglund as their No.1 choice for Vaughan Williams's 4th Symphony.

[Oates]

Another release due of previous unperformed RVW music:

http://rvwsociety.com/albionrecords/#


Three Nocturnes
A Road All Paved with Stars
Stricken Peninsula
Four Last Songs

No further details at present.

[Karl Henning]

Another release due of previous unperformed RVW music:

http://rvwsociety.com/albionrecords/#

Three Nocturnes
A Road All Paved with Stars
Stricken Peninsula
Four Last Songs

No further details at present.

You set me to searching the catalogue:

1908
Three Nocturnes
(Whitman). For baritone solo, semi-chorus, and orchestra. I. Come, O voluptuous sweet-breathed earth; II. By the Bivouac's fitful flame, III. Out of the rolling ocean. Nos. I and III are dated 18 August 1908. A theme used in III recurs in a modified form in Sancta Civitas. Substantial but incomplete.

1944
The Stricken Peninsula
None of the music is known to have survived.

A wartime film, so perhaps they have "reconstructed" the score from the film?

In memory of Michael Kennedy (1926–2014), friend of Vaughan Williams and ... A Road all Paved with Stars was jointly commissioned by Oxford University

So, not a RVW work, per se, but an arrangement of material from A Poisoned Kiss.

At least one of the Four Last Songs seems to be up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/v/fkwZ5ghn0A4

[Karl Henning]

I got so caught up in the chase, I neglected to remark . . . how wonderful that he wrote so very much, that even now there is work yet to be performed.

Odd to think of the Four Last Songs languishing for want of performance, thought

[Christo]

Two other major projects are still waiting to be done. One would be, to bring together his two 'pageants' in collaboration with E.M. Forster (!):

1934: Music for the Pageant of Abinger, with words by E.M Forster (for choir and band); https://www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk/ralph-vaughan-williams/d5-44-copy
1938: England's Pleasant Land (again by Forster, again for choir and band); http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/blog/pageant-ambridge
He is said to have tested some of his ideas for the Fifth Symphony in the latter, and no doubt the former reflects some traits of the Fourth from the same year (as do all compositions from this time).

The other would be, to bring together all the incidental music from the 1910s:

Euripides: The Bacchae (1911);
Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard II, Henry IV Part 2, Richard III, Henry V (all in 1913);

Only The Death of Tintagiles (1913, Maeterlinck) has been recorded, and proved quite a 'revelation' (RVW in his most impressionist mood).

[vandermolen]

Two other major projects are still waiting to be done. One would be, to bring together his two 'pageants' in collaboration with E.M. Forster (!):

1934: Music for the Pageant of Abinger, with words by E.M Forster (for choir and band); https://www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk/ralph-vaughan-williams/d5-44-copy
1938: England's Pleasant Land (again by Forster, again for choir and band); http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk/blog/pageant-ambridge
He is said to have tested some of his ideas for the Fifth Symphony in the latter, and no doubt the former reflects some traits of the Fourth from the same year (as do all compositions from this time).

The other would be, to bring together all the incidental music from the 1910s:

Euripides: The Bacchae (1911);
Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard II, Henry IV Part 2, Richard III, Henry V (all in 1913);

Only The Death of Tintagiles (1913, Maeterlinck) has been recorded, and proved quite a 'revelation' (RVW in his most impressionist mood).

The photo from the Abinger Pageant is quite funny. The band appear to be playing, the crowd of people seem to be paying no attention, facing the opposite direction or walking away and Vaughan Williams appears to be in a kind of 'No Man's Land'. It reminds me of a famous wartime poster of Winston Churchill saying: 'Let us Go Forward Together' in which Churchill is facing one way and the aircraft and tanks appear to be moving in the opposite direction. I guess they must be watching the pageant - still find it funny though.

[Oates]

Another release due of previous unperformed RVW music:

http://rvwsociety.com/albionrecords/#


Three Nocturnes
A Road All Paved with Stars
Stricken Peninsula
Four Last Songs

No further details at present.

This CD is wonderful...

[vandermolen]

This CD is wonderful...

Great to hear as just received it.

[Christo]

Great to hear as just received it.

Am playing it for the first time today (on Spotify). Unexpected surprise at the very start: the opening chords of the first of the  Three Nocturnes ('Smile O Voluptuous Cool-Breath'd Earth'; what's in a name) from 1908 are very similar to the main material (theme and development) of the opening movement Molto moderato of A Pastoral Symphony. For about 30 long seconds long. 

[vandermolen]

Am playing it for the first time today (on Spotify). Unexpected surprise at the very start: the opening chords of the first of the  Three Nocturnes ('Smile O Voluptuous Cool-Breath'd Earth'; what's in a name) from 1908 are very similar to the main material (theme and development) of the opening movement Molto moderato of A Pastoral Symphony. For about 30 long seconds long. 

Very interesting to hear and greatly looking forward to hearing it. My own copy was intercepted by 'Customs Control' here so I'm keeping it as a Christmas Present.

[vandermolen]

BBC Radio 3's 'Building a Library' choice this morning was A London Symphony - an interesting survey. Their final two recommendations were the Vernon Handley RLPO version and Bernard Haitink's recording with a nod to Barbirolli's earlier recording with the Halle Orchestra. There was also a 'wild card' recommendation for Rozhdestvensky's recording made in the then Leningrad. The march in the last movement sounded like Prokofiev but well worth hearing.

[Oates]

BBC Radio 3's 'Building a Library' choice this morning was A London Symphony - an interesting survey. Their final two recommendations were the Vernon Handley RLPO version and Bernard Haitink's recording with a nod to Barbirolli's earlier recording with the Halle Orchestra. There was also a 'wild card' recommendation for Rozhdestvensky's recording made in the then Leningrad. The march in the last movement sounded like Prokofiev but well worth hearing.

I grew up with the Barbirolli / Halle version and when I later heard other versions I thought the Scherzo was too fast - Barbirolli alone seems to have slowed the tempo right down - I must say I prefer it slow...

[vandermolen]

I grew up with the Barbirolli / Halle version and when I later heard other versions I thought the Scherzo was too fast - Barbirolli alone seems to have slowed the tempo right down - I must say I prefer it slow...

I liked the EMI Barbirolli Halle version too - the critics always complained about the slowness of the scherzo but it sounded right to me.

By the way I know Carnforth as I was a student at Lancaster.

[vandermolen]

Don't be put off if you have overdosed on 'The Lark Ascending' because this is a most interesting disc, featuring the very early tone poem 'The Solent' (1903), a theme from which features in the contemporaneous 'Sea Symphony' and right at the end of the composer's life in Symphony No.9 - obviously the theme meant a lot to Vaughan Williams. I also liked the even earlier 'Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra' - not entirely characteristic, sounding rather like Parry but a fascinating glimpse of VW's early development as a composer. The short piano pieces are light weight but the performance by the Chamber Orchestra of New York brings a freshness to  the ubiquitous ' Lark Ascending'.
[asin]B01M09TBAK[/asin]

[cilgwyn]

I like that Henry Wood recording of the Fantasia on Greensleves,where he conducts it really slowly. He makes it sound like a stately dance. I think it could be my favourite,strangely enough!

[vandermolen]

I like that Henry Wood recording of the Fantasia on Greensleves,where he conducts it really slowly. He makes it sound like a stately dance. I think it could be my favourite,strangely enough!

His recording of 'A London Symphony' is excellent and recently commended on BBC Radio 3's 'Building a Library'.

[Sergeant Rock]

I like that Henry Wood recording of the Fantasia on Greensleves,where he conducts it really slowly. He makes it sound like a stately dance. I think it could be my favourite,strangely enough!

What recording is that? The only Wood's performance online I can find is this one (1937, not complete), which is anything but slow.

https://www.youtube.com/v/wdxX5dY8dMI


Sarge

[Christo]

What recording is that? The only Wood's performance online I can find is this one (1937, not complete), which is anything but slow.
https://www.youtube.com/v/wdxX5dY8dMI
Sarge

I think it's the 1936 (London, April 22, 1936) recording of the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood on this precious cd:


And I also think you're both right. At least partially: Wood taking a much quicker tempo for the Greensleeve theme is exactly the reason why it sounds as a 'stately dance' here. But he also opts for slower tempi at other moments, thus effectively turning the piece 'upside down' compared to all other recordings that I know of - and for that very reason my favourite performance too. 

[vandermolen]

Extraordinary looking new release:
I'm always delighted and interested to hear Vaughan Williams's music performed by non-British orchestras.
[asin]B01MRZNUSN[/asin]
These are two of his greatest works I believe.