Vaughan Williams's Veranda

Started by karlhenning, April 12, 2007, 06:03:44 AM

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vandermolen

Quote from: Jezetha on May 21, 2008, 07:05:36 AM
Thom lives in the Netherlands, too. He was simply crying shoulder to shoulder with me.  ;D

Pleased to hear it! Well, actually I mean pleased to hear that I did not upset anyone. As a Chelsea supporter I'm having a bad evening  :'(
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on May 21, 2008, 02:50:23 PM
Pleased to hear it! Well, actually I mean pleased to hear that I did not upset anyone. As a Chelsea supporter I'm having a bad evening  :'(

Didn't watch it. But I conclude that Manchester United won, then... My condolences, Jeffrey.

(Let's hope the Chelsea fans don't storm Lenin's Tomb.)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

vandermolen

Quote from: Jezetha on May 21, 2008, 02:56:02 PM
Didn't watch it. But I conclude that Manchester United won, then... My condolences, Jeffrey.

(Let's hope the Chelsea fans don't storm Lenin's Tomb.)

Thanks Johan,

I think that the guards at Lenin's tomb (where I was a few weeks ago) will be able to fend off the Chelsea fans. They will be heading for the bars anyway to drown their sorrows. I am consoling myself with Miaskovsky's 17th Symphony  :'(
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Dundonnell

Quote from: vandermolen on May 21, 2008, 03:01:17 PM
Thanks Johan,

I think that the guards at Lenin's tomb (where I was a few weeks ago) will be able to fend off the Chelsea fans. They will be heading for the bars anyway to drown their sorrows. I am consoling myself with Miaskovsky's 17th Symphony  :'(

When I took a group of school pupils to Lenin's Tomb in 1991(a month before the Coup against Gorbachev!) the guards would not even let the pupils whisper to each other!! :)

Christo

Quote from: vandermolen on May 21, 2008, 03:01:17 PM
Thanks Johan,

I think that the guards at Lenin's tomb (where I was a few weeks ago) will be able to fend off the Chelsea fans. They will be heading for the bars anyway to drown their sorrows. I am consoling myself with Miaskovsky's 17th Symphony  :'( 

We both sincerely apologize for Van der Sar's gross misconduct.  :'(

As for musical consolement fitting with this thread: I remember to have seen some Russian performance of the Sea Symphony, but I don't have it and cannot find the details. Who does?
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on May 21, 2008, 10:58:06 PM
We both sincerely apologize for Van der Sar's gross misconduct.  :'(

As for musical consolement fitting with this thread: I remember to have seen some Russian performance of the Sea Symphony, but I don't have it and cannot find the details. Who does?

I accept your apology Johan and Johan but as a "van der molen" maybe I am implicated myself.

Russian VW, how exciting! Don't know this although I have a very interesting CD of Svetlanov conducting the USSR Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Second Symphony; a rather unidiomatic but still very good performance.,
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Lethevich

Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

sound67

Don't know about his Bruckner or Honegger(!) either!

Has this been linked before: Norman Lebrecht has written a column on the Vaughan Williams anniversary:

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/080430-NL-Vaughan.html

QuoteDuring the Second World War, VW assumed the oracular role to English audiences that Shostakovich did to Russians. Crowds surged to his fifth symphony in the hope of glimpsing victory and a better world beyond. In peacetime, he turned bleak once more. Famous as he was, he refused all official titles and conducted amateur choirs in Dorking with scruffy gusto and unfailing courtesy, always remembering to thank the worst of his singers for their enthusiasm. He strikes me the kind of man whose greatest effort went into concealing his greatness. At 85, preparing for the next day's recording of his ninth symphony, he died in his sleep on September 26, 1958.

That so vital a composer could fade from the centre of our attention is down to the fickleness of the classical music establishment. No sooner was he dead than BBC mandarins wrote him off as English and reactionary, when he was the least insular of composers and socially among the most progressive. It did not help that his few posthumous champions came from the political right, and that the piece by which he is best known is the rosy-toned arcadian setting of Henry VIII's Greensleeves.

There may be one further reason for his retreat. VW was always best served by the less flamboyant conductors. Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli were his choice interpreters. The colourful Thomas Beecham actively disliked him.

That dichotomy persists. The Phiharmonia cycle is conducted by Richard Hickox, the Proms by Andrew Davis, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Elder. The flashier baton of Simon Rattle is conspicuous in its present VW abstinence.

Not that it matters much, since the wind is now blowing his way. The Lark Ascending has just come top of a poll of Classic FM listeners and when television viewers hear the Tallis Fantasia as the long boats flicker down the River Thames, some think 'there will always be an England' while others rush to their blogs to proclaim, 'that is a sound that I want to hear for the rest of my days.' Uncle Ralph is home. Tea, anyone?

Simon Rattle sure is a prick ...
"Vivaldi didn't compose 500 concertos. He composed the same concerto 500 times" - Igor Stravinsky

"Mozart is a menace to musical progress, a relic of rituals that were losing relevance in his own time and are meaningless to ours." - Norman Lebrecht

Lethevich

Quote from: sound67 on May 22, 2008, 08:22:48 AM
Has this been linked before: Norman Lebrecht has written a column on the Vaughan Williams anniversary:

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/080430-NL-Vaughan.html

Simon Rattle sure is a prick ...

It is a shame that Rattle doesn't seem to care for RVW. His appointment to the BP could've been an ideal time for people to hear a leading non-English orchestra play the music.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

sound67

Awww, who cares. I know several musicians who played under him in the BP, and they all said he's the most utterly forgettable of conductors. Just a media hype. He wouldn't have anything of merit to say about RVW anyway.
"Vivaldi didn't compose 500 concertos. He composed the same concerto 500 times" - Igor Stravinsky

"Mozart is a menace to musical progress, a relic of rituals that were losing relevance in his own time and are meaningless to ours." - Norman Lebrecht

Dundonnell

Quote from: sound67 on May 22, 2008, 08:22:48 AM
Don't know about his Bruckner or Honegger(!) either!

Has this been linked before: Norman Lebrecht has written a column on the Vaughan Williams anniversary:

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/080430-NL-Vaughan.html

Simon Rattle sure is a prick ...

Wonder who these "few posthumous champions" from the "political right" were? I don't know the politics(if any!) of Boult or Barbirolli.

A bit unfair on Andrew Davis and Leonard Slatkin-both of whom have recorded complete VW symphony sets!

Have to agree about Rattle! I cherish his Mahler 2nd and 10th and the Maw Odyssey but have nothing else conducted by him in my collection.

Christo

Quote from: vandermolen on May 21, 2008, 11:31:39 PMRussian VW, how exciting!

Yes, it's still to be seen at Amazon.com, which offers the following details:

.>> R. Vaughan Wiliams SYMPHONY No.1 ("A Sea Symphony", 1910) .... Total time - 65.30. T. Smoryakova, soprano B. Vasiliev, baritone The Leningrad Musical Society Conductors" Chour Artistic director A. Verechagin The Rimsky-Korsakov Musical School Chour Artistic director B. Abalian The USSR Ministry Of Culture Symphony Orchestra Conductor Gennadi Rozdestvensky. Recorded live at the Grand Hall of Leningrad Philharmony April 30, 1988. <<

                 

I also own the BBC recording with Rozhdestvensky conducting the BBC SO in the Fifth. But with a British orchestra, it doesn't count as `Russian VW', I would say.


... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Quote from: Christo on May 22, 2008, 10:28:13 AM
Yes, it's still to be seen at Amazon.com, which offers the following details:

.>> R. Vaughan Wiliams SYMPHONY No.1 ("A Sea Symphony", 1910) .... Total time - 65.30. T. Smoryakova, soprano B. Vasiliev, baritone The Leningrad Musical Society Conductors" Chour Artistic director A. Verechagin The Rimsky-Korsakov Musical School Chour Artistic director B. Abalian The USSR Ministry Of Culture Symphony Orchestra Conductor Gennadi Rozdestvensky. Recorded live at the Grand Hall of Leningrad Philharmony April 30, 1988. <<

                 

I also own the BBC recording with Rozhdestvensky conducting the BBC SO in the Fifth. But with a British orchestra, it doesn't count as `Russian VW', I would say.




Thanks Johan,

How interesting!

I have that CD with No 5 and Sancta Civitas; both excellent performances. I'd love to hear Rozhdestvensky doing Nos 4,6 or 9. The Sargent No 4, which is excellent and which was also on that BBC Radio Classics label has just been reissued on BBC Legends (with sibelius No 4).
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

Quote from: sound67 on May 22, 2008, 08:22:48 AM
Don't know about his Bruckner or Honegger(!) either!

Has this been linked before: Norman Lebrecht has written a column on the Vaughan Williams anniversary:

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/080430-NL-Vaughan.html

Simon Rattle sure is a prick ...


Thanks for the link to a very interesting article. I'll DVD the programme tomorrow.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

btpaul674

Quote from: vandermolen on May 21, 2008, 02:50:23 PM
As a Chelsea supporter I'm having a bad evening  :'(

I'm very sorry, that was a heartbreaker for many. I have strong feelings against ManU since the '99 debacle.

But when Bayern Munich returns to the champions league next year, it will be ok since we all know they will win it anyway.  ;D




eyeresist

Quote from: Lebrecht
He strikes me the kind of man whose greatest effort went into concealing his greatness.

What, as opposed to writing good music? >:D


vandermolen

Quote from: btpaul674 on May 22, 2008, 11:58:06 AM
I'm very sorry, that was a heartbreaker for many. I have strong feelings against ManU since the '99 debacle.

But when Bayern Munich returns to the champions league next year, it will be ok since we all know they will win it anyway.  ;D





:)
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Thom

I know I ask for much, but is anyone able to tape the Vaughan Williams documentary tonight on BBC4 and to  post it f.i. to rapidshare or YouTube? If what I am asking is nonsense with regard to technical barriers, then forgive me. I am no expert on video matters.

Thom

Christo

Only now I start to realize that the film might contain some revelations? Quote from Norman Lebrecht's column:

Between the wars he flirted harmlessly with his Royal College students – 'we always called him the Uncle', says one dear old girl in John Bridcut's new film – until, in 1938, he fell in love with Ursula Wood, an army bride of traffic-stopping beauty. Bridcut's film reveals that they became lovers immediately and that Ursula had an abortion, not knowing if the foetus was Wood's or VW's.
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich

Quote from: Thom on May 22, 2008, 11:32:20 PMI know I ask for much, but is anyone able to tape the Vaughan Williams documentary tonight on BBC4 and to  post it f.i. to rapidshare or YouTube? If what I am asking is nonsense with regard to technical barriers, then forgive me. I am no expert on video matters.
Oh yes please!