Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 5 in D major





During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Vaughan Williams was occupied with a wide variety of musical projects. His earliest film scores date from this time, such as those for The 49th Parallel (1940) and Coastal Command (1942). He also contributed to the war effort with works like the Five Wartime Hymns (1942) and the pageant England's Pleasant Land (1938); the latter work incorporates early sketches for the Symphony No. 5. There was also the ongoing labor on the opera/morality play The Pilgrim's Progress. Some incidental commissions also came his way, like the Serenade to Music written for Sir Henry Wood's golden jubilee as a conductor (1938).

And there was the Symphony No. 5, largely written over the years 1938 to 1943. Vaughan Williams himself conducted the London Philharmonic in the work's first performance at a Royal Albert Hall Promenade concert on June 24, 1943. A decade separates this symphony and its predecessor, and a work more unlike the violent and tumultuous Symphony No. 4 would be hard to imagine. Vaughan Williams scholar Michael Kennedy has called the Fifth the "symphony of the celestial city," which perhaps gives some indication of the work's radiance and lyricism.

The Symphony No. 5 was dedicated to Jean Sibelius, and the latter's own Symphony No. 5 is evoked in the serene and mysterious opening Preludio. French horns sound out in D major over a low C in the strings, an ambiguity that is partly resolved when a radiant E major emerges in the strings. There are some darker moments during the more animated development section, but the opening horn calls return, and the main melody is heroically sounded out with brass and tympani. The epilogue is more ambivalent, wandering sadly toward a haunting and uncertain ending. The second movement, Scherzo, is a sardonic little dance that emerges out of swirling strings. Blasts from the brass section occasionally interrupt the tune. As turbulent as the music gets, the scoring is light and nimble throughout. The music relaxes toward the end of the movement, perhaps in anticipation of what is to follow.

The Symphony No. 5 derives some of its thematic content from the opera The Pilgrim's Progress, but only in the third movement "Romanza" is the connection between opera and symphony dramatically apparent. In the manuscript score, Vaughan Williams included a brief quotation from Bunyan's work: "Upon this place stood a cross, and a little below a sepulchre. Then he said: 'He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.'" The movement begins mysteriously, as a stately chorale-like theme is presented. Woodwinds, particularly English horn and oboe, introduce a new theme (taken from Act One, Scene Two of the opera). The music becomes temporarily blustery, but the chorale theme returns and builds to a noble climax. A solo violin leads into the hushed and poignant coda. Like the Brahms Symphony No. 4, the Vaughan Williams Fifth ends with a Passacaglia; the stately theme is heard in the low strings at first, and is developed by the rest of the orchestra. Variations on the passacaglia theme range from the playful to the jubilant to the restive. A big, brass-laden climax leads to a return of the symphony's opening French horn call, this time in a more assertive guise. The strings reflect on motifs from the first movement, with the passacaglia theme lurking nearby, and fade into a very peaceful and beautiful ending to what some have called Vaughan Williams' greatest symphony.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

An Analysis from classical.net -

Introduction

This symphony consists largely of fragments from Vaughan Williams' then-unfinished opera, The Pilgrim's Progress. In his late 60s and early 70s when he began the Fifth, Vaughan Williams was to some extent impelled by the possibility that he might not finish the opera and hated to waste good ideas. I'll try to point out the symphony's musical connections to the opera (I'll undoubtedly miss some), where it seems relevant. In general, however, the symphony's musical themes bear only a very abstract relation to the opera. One can't say that the symphony has a specific program, although Vaughan Williams once affixed a quote (later removed) from Bunyan himself to the opening of the slow third movement.

The symphony is in the "usual" four movements: a "Preludio" first movement; Scherzo; a "Romanza" slow movement; a "Passacaglia" finale. These correspond (sort of) to a sonata-allegro first movement, scherzo, song-form slow movement, and rondo finale of the classical symphony. We will of course find differences which provide insight into some of Vaughan Williams' symphonic methods.

Note : To provide further help, I will give timings indicating where the large pieces begin. I use the Boult recording on EMI.

First Movement: Preludio
I think we can instructively compare the structure of the first movement of this symphony to the sonata-allegro of a classical symphony.

Classical :

Statement (exposition) of the first subject group
Exposition of the second subject group
Development
Recapitulation and optional coda
VW follows this model as closely as he ever did:

Exposition of the first subject group
Exposition of the second subject group
Shortened development of one theme from 1st group and one sort of from the 2nd
Recap of the first subject group
Extended recap of the second subject group
Coda
Most of the departures come from the fact that you distinguish the parts of a sonata-allegro through key changes. The problem is that modern music changes key (or "modulates") far more often than the classical model. How then does one perceive the structural parts?

VW, from the opening measures, puts key and structure into doubt. Long stretches of this symphony are simultaneously in two keys – C and D. The bass line is in C, the opening horn call in D. (He wrote in more than one key in other works as well; see "Flos Campi," from the 20s). Is the bass a dissonance to the horns (a flatted 7th, for you afficionados) or the horns to the bass (an augmented 4th, or "tritone")? For a considerable time, Vaughan Williams himself could not decide the movement's key (he settled for D). Indeed, an examination of the score reveals lots more dissonances than the average 18th- or 19th-century symphony, something that you'd probably expect anyway. Yet the movement, for the most part, sounds serene, with a sinister undertone that barely breaks the surface. Much of this softening comes from Vaughan Williams' orchestration: he tends to work in distinct "planes" of sound. In the opening measures, for example, the low cellos and basses are separated from the higher horns in range and sound color.

The opening is magic. It's as if the symphony doesn't begin: we merely happen upon a continual song. Contrast this with the definite start of Beethoven's "Eroica." From the very beginning, the outlines of Vaughan Williams' forms are hazier.

Even more important to the sound of the movement is Vaughan Williams' fondness for modal, mainly pentatonic (the black notes of the piano played as a scale) themes. I could go into technical reasons why such devices weaken the sense of tonality (for a good discussion of this, see Charles Rosen's introduction to The Classical Style), but I'd prefer to concentrate on what you hear. For now, just accept it as a fact, or read Rosen.

Given the weak tonality, how does Vaughan Williams make the movement cohere? One answer is through motific and rhythmic contrast. A roadmap to the movement follows:

Exposition of the first subject group (0:00):

a. A horn call with a distinctive dotted rhythm, associated in the opera with the Celestial City
b. A rising answer on the high strings
c. A cadential figure beginning and ending on C in the cellos and basses (0:19)
d. Slightly later (0:41), a descending theme on the violins.
All these themes are combined, often in canon. The rhythm of the horn call hardly ever leaves the texture. In fact, this symphony shows great contrapuntal resource throughout, although not as flashy as in the 4th Symphony. The exposition is repeated and varied (1:12). In the course of this section Vaughan Williams modulates to some rather distant keys, and yet the harmonies feel almost stable. This I believe due to the isolation of the texture into separate planes of sound, mentioned earlier.

The horn call leads to a radiant E Major and the second subject group (3.19):

e. A chorale theme (VW's hymn tune "Sine Nomine" disguised), from the "House Beautiful" scene (accompanying the Interpreter's "An open door shall be set before thee and no man may shut it")
f. A subordinate "Dresden Amen" (C D F E D C) figure
g. A descending minor 3rd (Eb Db C), associated with the words "Beelzebub" in the opera. It appears at the very end of the second exposition.
This is a more, song-like section, with a stronger sense of closure. Toward the end, the music darkens with a slightly sinister version of the horn call (a) (4:34) in the bassoons. This leads to the "Beelzebub" 3rd (g) (4:50).

Motive (c) leads to an extended quick section (5:10) based on (c), (g), and a moto perpetuo scurrying in the strings (sinister mice) based on (d). This section, fairly short, takes the place of the classical development.

Around 7:05, it winds down to the horn call and the first subject group for a last extended go-round leading to a glorious outburst of the "Sine Nomine" and "Dresden Amen" (8:13). Vaughan Williams plays with the second group longer than at first, and the section winds down with (d) (9:22). The "Beelzebub" theme starts (9:45), but gets cut to a semitone, thus showing an unexpected relationship with the horn call – its dark reflection.

At 10:21, the horn call returns, and we are into the coda, which works mainly with (a) and (d), until the movement fades into the distance. It hasn't ended so much as simply left us behind.

Second Movement - Scherzo

Music history books will tell you that the Beethoven scherzo took over from the minuet and trio movement of the classical symphony. This is true enough, but not really the whole story. At any rate, both the scherzo and the minuet work by playing off two main sets of ideas. In addition, Haydn works a variation by having a minuet withtwo trios. So now you know that a trio is a section that contrasts to the minuet or scherzo. Why is it called a trio? Originally, the contrasting section was written in three parts, fewer than the minuet or scherzo itself, frequently (in Lully, for example) for two oboes and bassoon. You can find a really good, well-known example of this in the last movement of the Bach first Brandenburg concerto. Anyway, the section usually supplied a lighter contrast, but by the modern period this was simply generalized to "the contrasting section." It didn't have to be more lightly scored. Certainly, this is not the case with Vaughan Williams' movement. In fact, the climax of the movement occurs in a trio.

The classical composer laid out the scherzo with 2 trios in the following way :

a. Scherzo (usually in triple time, by the way)
b. Trio 1 (sometimes in duple time)
c. Scherzo
d. Trio 2
e. Scherzo
This is known schematically as A B A C (or B') A. Vaughan Williams elides this to A B A (truncated) C B'.

Again, the movement seems to start from nowhere out of rising 4ths. These lead to a rollicking theme (0:20), which tends to insist on a minor 3rd and which you actually get slightly earlier in a subordinate part (0:14). The passage dissolves into the rising 4ths again (0:40), treated imitatively. At 0:50, Vaughan Williams repeats the section.

At 1:01, you'll hear what might be described as a woodwind raspberry or, more politely, as bagpipe skirls. These will serve in the movement much like the rising 4ths as heralds of a new section. In this case, however, the skirls give way to the rising 4ths (1:48) which announce the first trio.

Out of a transitional minor-3rd theme comes a chordal, chorale-like motive (1:57). Vaughan Williams elaborates on this for a while. The passage dissolves into rising 4ths, again treated imitatively (3:05), which mark the return of the rollicking scherzo (3:23).

The scherzo gets cut short after about 10 seconds, with the intrusion of the bagpipe skirls (3:35), introducing a duple-time second trio, with attempts to re-establish triple time (3:55, 4:07) along the way. Eventually the trio dies to embers, leading to variants of the chorale and the rising 4ths (4:23). Triple time finally gets re-established (4:46) with flickering rising 4ths, but these lead to nothing new, finally ending in a quiet poof.

VW reveals himself in this movement a master orchestrator. In general, he contrasts a transparent, even wispy texture with great forward drive, at rather low volume. The low volume itself challenges players. One doesn't often hear a true pianissimo in live concert, although standards have certainly risen in my lifetime. That the Louisiana Philharmonic a good, but not first-rank orchestra, often does speaks volumes. Strings play largely at the unison or octave, and winds are usually reduced to solos or duets. When the winds get heavy, the strings drop out (more of these contrasting planes of sound). How anyone could think of this as clunky orchestration is beyond me, but one reviewer certainly did. It was "not music demanding great finesse or delicacy of tone" (Daily Telegraph, 1957). What in heaven's name was he listening to?

Third Movement: Romanza

The romanza is a short, lyrical instrumental composition "of an idyllic character," according to the Harvard Dictionary of Music. This movement more than lives up to its billing. Many slow movements are in the form A B A (known as song form): that is, they consist of an opening section, a contrasting middle section, and a return to the opening section again. The sections are seldom equal in length or weight. Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz," if you know it, shows this form in little, as does Lennon-McCartney's "Michelle." In the Romanza, Vaughan Williams contrasts an idyllic mood (music from The Pilgrim's Progress Act I, Scene ii, "The House Beautiful") with great agitation (from Act I, Scene i; Pilgrim sings, "Save me, Lord! My burden is greater than I can bear").

The opening section plays with three ideas:

a. A theme given to the cor anglais
b. Rising 4ths, used mainly as transition (see the 2nd movement as well)
c. A broad tune, which has the family look of the Alleluias from "Sine Nomine," although it never actually declares its lineage
A gorgeous chord progression announces a melody in the cor anglais (the opening is, as far as I can tell, note for note from the introduction to the House Beautiful scene). At 0:47, rising 4ths lead to a broad tune in the strings (0:50) which subsides into the flute, oboe, cor anglais, and clarinet playing the rising 4ths once more (1:48). This leads to a repeat of the opening section (2:09). Now the cor anglais theme sounds in the strings (low register of the violins), and we get a bigger statement of the broad tune.

Just as the primarily transitional rising 4ths in the scherzo blossomed into an extended passage, so they do here (3:59), led by the oboe and joined by all the winds in a remarkable passage of "free-for-all" conversation. Of course, it takes a master contrapuntalist to make this bit sound as casual as it does. Vaughan Williams works in much the same idiom in the opening to his "Flos Campi."

At any rate, this leads to the agitated passage in the strings (the B section), against rising 4ths and chromatic runs in the winds. It begins to die down, as the brass, led by the horn (5:43), takes up the cor anglais tune.

Rising 4ths fortissimo in the strings (6:22) lead to a return to the opening music (6:38) and more agitation. At 7:26, the broad tune sings again, this time in extended treatment. Here is the climax to the movement.

At 9:15, the opening chords sound for the last time. The movement begins to wind down. A violin introduces his solo with rising 4ths (9:30). Against shimmering strings (9:55), the cor anglais tune comes back in the horn, and the movement ends (10:12) with fragments of the broad tune.

Forth Movement: Passacaglia

A passacaglia is a musical form which repeats a bass line (usually in triple time) throughout. Against the fixed bass, it varies the upper parts. The last movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 4 in e is a passacaglia, though that work also uses a harmonic progression as a fixed point.

VW's passacaglia resembles more Purcell's "chaconies." It depends less on harmony than does the Brahms. The jargon calls it more "horizontal." In fact, it's not, strictly speaking, a passacaglia at all, although it follows the form in its opening.

The passacaglia theme begins, as usual, in the bass – a descending line. A bit in, a rising counter-melody sneaks in through the upper parts (0:12). It will have tremendous consequences in the movement. This reaches a small climax after about 5 repetitions, at which point the bass fragments into pizzicato. Three more repetitions follow, rising to a fanfare motive (1:51). This fanfare motive is related to the finale of Vaughan Williams' "Dona nobis pacem" – the vision of Isaiah: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation" and "Open to me the gates of righteousness" – and to the scene of the Arming of the Pilgrim from the opera. This plays against the passacaglia's counter-melody (hereafter referred to as the counter-melody).

At this point (2:17), Vaughan Williams gives up the passacaglia, with about seven more minutes left in the movement. We get an imitative section on the passacaglia theme (referred to from now on as "the passacaglia"), which again leads to the fanfare (2:40). The fanfare combines with the passacaglia and the counter-melody.

The fanfare reaches a climax which quickly deflates to an agitated version of the passacaglia on clarinet (3:39) and other winds. This is (sort of) a B section. The rumblings grow to three outcries of this version at 4:52, 5:11, and 5:18. We hear a disturbed version of the counter-melody, leading to a large climax on the passacaglia (5:41).

This breaks into music from the first movement – the Preludio (6:03) -- like waves against a rock. We are coming to the end, although I hesitate calling this a coda. It's a necessary outgrowth of the movement itself. Wisps of themes from the first movement float around, including (I.d) (6:34 and 6:44), the opening horn call (I.a) (6:55), and (I.b) (7:05).

The reminiscence of the symphony's opening leads to a quiet extended fantasia (7:13) on the counter-melody, fanfare, and fragments of the passacaglia. The movement ends with the high strings taking off into the aether.

Such an unusual musical structure which comes off with such success shows a composer who has mastered form to such an extent, it's in his blood. He dictates the form, rather than allowing the form to dictate the music.

Copyright 1995-2000, Steve Schwartz

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I have loved this symphony since the first-time I heard and it remains one of my favorite pieces of all-time. On my initial listen to this work, I had some heavy tears roll down during my cheek during the Romanza movement. There was only one movement in music up at this point that had made me cry and that was the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th. I don't want to go any further as I would come off as a gushing fanboy. What do you guys think of this symphony? Do you believe it's one of the great symphonies of all-time? Any favorite performances? For me, like the Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3), this is a difficult symphony to pull-off well, but both Previn/LSO and Boult/EMI have made the greatest impression on me.

[vandermolen]

Love the expression 'gushing fanboy' - must start using it in conversation. 
Yes, one of the great symphonies and arguably VW's finest - must have been very context to hear it originally in the context of London in World War Two.
Barbirolli's EMI recording and VW's recently unearthed own recording are favourites. However there are great versions IMHO by Previn (RCA), Thomson and I also like the Hickox - which has some great lesser-known works coupled with it.

[Mirror Image]

Love the expression 'gushing fanboy' - must start using it in conversation. 
Yes, one of the great symphonies and arguably VW's finest - must have been very context to hear it originally in the context of London in World War Two.
Barbirolli's EMI recording and VW's recently unearthed own recording are favourites. However there are great versions IMHO by Previn (RCA), Thomson and I also like the Hickox - which has some great lesser-known works coupled with it.

I never have cared for the Barbirolli recording believe it or not. I find the audio quality too dense and not clear enough. This really hinders the enjoyment of the performance, especially in the Scherzo and Passacaglia movements. We know RVW was a great orchestrator and that analysis of the 5th from the above proves that indeed he was, so, for me, it's always a question of whether the audio quality can handle the myriad of colors in the music.

[Sergeant Rock]

What do you guys think of this symphony? Do you believe it's one of the great symphonies of all-time? Any favorite performances?

I don't do "great" (although I can see why it's considered by some to be his greatest) but there are other VW symphonies I favor more. In fact it took me decades after becoming a certified RVW fan to finally and fully appreciate the Fifth. Menuhin's performance did it. It's still my desert island version. Haitink's slow, dark, brooding reading is another I like. ("Haitink makes of Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony a bigger piece than we are used to, with a certain Germanic grandeur which makes one think of Bruckner." --MusicWeb) Previn (Telarc) and Barbirolli round out a Top 4

Sarge

[aukhawk]

Yes it's wonderful music.  Boult/EMI for me although that audio quality sadly isn't up to EMI's usual very high standards of that period.

[Mirror Image]

I don't do "great" (although I can see why it's considered by some to be his greatest) but there are other VW symphonies I favor more. In fact it took me decades after becoming a certified RVW fan to finally and fully appreciate the Fifth. Menuhin's performance did it. It's still my desert island version. Haitink's slow, dark, brooding reading is another I like. ("Haitink makes of Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony a bigger piece than we are used to, with a certain Germanic grandeur which makes one think of Bruckner." --MusicWeb) Previn (Telarc) and Barbirolli round out a Top 4

Sarge

Interesting how we all react differently to the music. I loved the 5th on first-hearing. I was a changed man after this symphony.

[Sergeant Rock]

I loved the 5th on first-hearing. I was a changed man after this symphony.

I can relate...except that: I loved the 4th on first-hearing. I was a changed man after this symphony.

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

I can relate...except that: I loved the 4th on first-hearing. I was a changed man after this symphony.

Sarge

The 4th along with the 6th were both symphonies that took some time for me to warm up to, but when I did, yet another window to this multifaceted composer opened up.

[aukhawk]

Back to Sinfonia Antartica - or 'Antarctica' as this recording has it 



(The spelling is discussed in the sleevenotes, where it is explained why 'Sinfonia Antartica' is 'correct' and (less convincingly) why the publishers nevertheless perversely decided to go with 'Antarctica'.)
So, is this recording by Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis SO a collector's item, or an abberant outlier?  Having recently acquired a used CD for not very much, I'm still not sure which it is.  Incidentally I started to trawl back through this thread to see if it had been reviewed before, only to discover it is mentioned on page 1! 

Well this is never going to be a top recommendation for this music - but there is a lot to like.
First up, the orchestral recording (dating from 1992) is excellent, with a narration added at an ideal level and in a believable acoustic to match the rest, and the organ (recorded separately) again perfectly integrated and with a fruity-sounding 32ft stop.  I think this is the only recording I have by the Indianapolis SO but they seem a fine band and well up to this task.  So too - in general terms - is Leppard - a conductor I've always associated mainly with 18-century music, although I am aware of his very fine recording of Bax's Fifth Symphony.

The narrator is Roger Allam, a name that means nothing to me but apparently an English C-list stage actor, presumably he was 'resting' in 1992.  He has a light voice and a matter-of-fact delivery which is poles apart from the portentous tones of John Gielgud et al.  The texts however are not those prescribed by RVW in the score.  Instead they are all extracts from Scott's diary, which range from the comic (the explorers' interactions with penguins) to the desolated (reaching the pole only to discover the Norwegian flag planted there).  According to the sleevenotes, RVW himself suggested this general idea, in a conversation that he had with Raymond Leppard.  The actual choice of extracts though is Leppard's.

I find they work very well and set up the music nicely as a prologue to each movement, although one extract (before the 2nd movement) is a bit over-long.  However there is a problem, which is that in at least four instances, there is narration within the movement as well - sometimes the music is paused for the narration, and sometimes it is music with voice-over.  For example, over the sustained orchestral pedal-note in the middle movement, immediately before the full orchestra comes in full bore.

Well - I always rip CDs to FLAC (don't have a CD player any more) so having done that it is pretty easy to edit the narration out - so I can have 'with' and 'without' copies on my music server.

Leppard takes the first movement very slowly (much slower than any other version I have to hand) and - surprisingly for a classicist - is interventionist, with frequent use of rubato.  Slow is good in my book, but romanticising is, to my ears, just wrong, the sense of implacable unyielding nature is just lost.  In the most important middle movement on the other hard, Leppard is too quick (quicker than any other version to hand) and so the massive moments just ... aren't massive.  It's the same result as the first movement, but achieved in a different way.  The rest of the music is just fine but it is these two points, more than anything else, that prevent this from being a top Antartica.

Interesting though - I'm glad I bought it.

[Sergeant Rock]

Interesting though - I'm glad I bought it.

Interesting indeed. It sounds as if Leppard treats the Symphony almost as if were incidental music. Unheard at this point, I don't approve of what he's done but would like to hear it nonetheless.

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

This doesn't sound like a Sinfonia Antartica I'd be interested in hearing, but thanks for taking one of 'the team'.

[Mirror Image]

Cross-posted from the 'Listening' thread:

Fresh from the mailbox:

A London Symphony ('Symphony No. 2') - 1920 version
Sound Sleep
Orpheus with his lute
Variations

Elizabeth Watts, soprano
Mary Bevan, soprano
Kitty Whately, mezzo-soprano
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Royal College of Music Brass Band
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

I just finished this disc and all I have to say right now is it's splendid. Absolutely top-drawer in every sense. I'll try to post more of my thoughts tomorrow morning.

[vandermolen]

Cross-posted from the 'Listening' thread:

I just finished this disc and all I have to say right now is it's splendid. Absolutely top-drawer in every sense. I'll try to post more of my thoughts tomorrow morning.

Yes, it's fine in all respects. I like the Variations for Brass Band as well! It was Symphony 6 which did it for me (Boult, LPO Decca LP c.1972).

My older brother had Symphony 5 (Barbirolli/EMI LP) which my mother had bought him by mistake one Christmas when he'd asked for Symphony 4 - however we both immediately liked Symphony 5, the most Sibelian of the cycle and dedicated to the great Finn.

I think that I came to VW via Copland. Copland's Third Symphony (Everest) was one of the first pieces of classical music which I loved. My brother had an LP of it. One day, coming home from school, I was browsing the LPs in WH Smiths (which then had an extended classical music selection) and saw all these LPs by VW. I asked my brother about him and my brother said ('he's a bit like an English Copland') and I then chose Symphony 6 - maybe I was intrigued by the fact that the LP featured a speech by the composer. Never looked back.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, it's fine in all respects. I like the Variations for Brass Band as well! It was Symphony 6 which did it for me (Boult, LPO Decca LP c.1972).

My older brother had Symphony 5 (Barbirolli/EMI LP) which my mother had bought him by mistake one Christmas when he'd asked for Symphony 4 - however we both immediately liked Symphony 5, the most Sibelian of the cycle and dedicated to the great Finn.

I think that I came to VW via Copland. Copland's Third Symphony (Everest) was one of the first pieces of classical music which I loved. My brother had an LP of it. One day, coming home from school, I was browsing the LPs in WH Smiths (which then had an extended classical music selection) and saw all these LPs by VW. I asked my brother about him and my brother said ('he's a bit like an English Copland') and I then chose Symphony 6 - maybe I was intrigued by the fact that the LP featured a speech by the composer. Never looked back.

Yes! Variations for brass band was excellent, too! The entire recording is a winner. It's interesting you came to RVW through Copland. There are some similarities between the composers for sure, although Copland didn't really have many nice things to say about RVW's music like, for example, "Listening to the fifth symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes." Of course, he couldn't be more wrong!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I think that I came to VW via Copland.

I think I came to VW via Sting. There was a profile of Sting in Time magazine, at the time Synchronicity was the album of the moment, so this must have been 1983. It mentioned that Sting's favorite piece of music was VW's 6th Symphony. I thought, "I should check this Williams guy out."

[Baron Scarpia]

Seeing the new recording of the 1920 edition of A London Symphony triggered a desire to do a comparison of versions. I have Hickox' recording of the original 1913 version but have never found time to listen to it. I listened to the first movement of Brabbins' new recording and didn't get much pleasure from it. After a bit of indecision, I listened to the official version of the symphony in Andrew Davis' recording, which I found utterly splendid. No little part of the enjoyment came from the audio quality. Teldec still maintains something of the old Telefunken "house sound" which I enjoy. Then went back to Haitink, which I also enjoyed, although the mid 80's early digital engineering was a little grating. Now I feel I've run out of steam before getting to the Hickox 1913 version. I never really seem to get much enjoyment from "comparisons" anyway, and based on what I've been reading the final version of the symphony is likely to be my favourite anyway.

[Roasted Swan]

I think the Leppard/Antarctica is very fine - Leppard has a fine sense of the drama of the work and - before recent times when the extended soundtrack has become available - I rather like the counter intuitive idea of adding more narration given that most performances of the Symphony now chose to omit the superscriptions.  Leppard recorded a wide range of repertoire on disc and of course was the principal conductor of the BBC Northern SO for 7 years - and I rather doubt they only played baroque opera during that time.  .

I think its rather patronising to state that a) an actor is unknown to one and then b) state they are a c-lister.  To my ear Allam is excellent in his delivery of the text giving these diary entries warmth and humanity.  In recent times Allam has been a stalwart of many fine British TV programmes and films.... no c-lister in my book.

In no sense is this recording "taking one for the team".  Fine engineering, fine orchestral playing and a convincing interpretation make this a version well worth hearing.

[vandermolen]

I think I came to VW via Sting. There was a profile of Sting in Time magazine, at the time Synchronicity was the album of the moment, so this must have been 1983. It mentioned that Sting's favorite piece of music was VW's 6th Symphony. I thought, "I should check this Williams guy out."

Very interesting about 'Sting' - I always liked the 'Blue Turtles' album, especially with its Prokofiev quotation. As to Copland and VW I think that Copland changed his mind in later years about VW in much the same way that Tippett did.

[Christo]

Very interesting about 'Sting' - I always liked the 'Blue Turtles' album, especially with its Prokofiev quotation. As to Copland and VW I think that Copland changed his mind in later years about VW in much the same way that Tippett did.

David Bowie was another Vaughan Williams fan. About ten years ago, he even discussed classical music at the Gramophone forum (forgot how it was/is called).

[vandermolen]

David Bowie was another Vaughan Williams fan. About ten years ago, he even discussed classical music at the Gramophone forum (forgot how it was/is called).

As apparently was Frank Sinatra. A fact that I find oddly moving as my father loved Frank Sinatra's music. I would never have made this connection. I occasionally listen to Frank: 'I've Got You Under My Skin' etc.
I wish my dad had known of Sinatra's admiration for VW.