Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[Lethevich]

It's a superb piece, IMO, and belies its fix-up nature (it was assembled from sections written over a rather large period of time). I've got Hickox on EMI (coupled with the equally fine if rather less immediately awe-inspiring Sancta Civitas) and I notice it appears to be for sale for four quid at Amazon.co.uk.

Reading my mind! Hehe

[Dundonnell]

The Hickox performance of 'Dona nobis pacem' is-in my opinion-extremely fine. I think that Hickox is a particularly good conductor of big choral pieces and the intense power of both pieces on that disc is, I believe, conveyed with immense sincerity and beauty. Bryn Terfel is a magnificent solist in both works.

There is also a splendid recording of 'Dona nobis pacem' by Sir Adrian Boult on EMI with John Carol Case(who featured in tonight's documentary) as soloist.

Re the documentary...I missed the first half and will try to catch it on BBC Iplayer before commenting.

[drogulus]

     This recording of Dona Nobis Pacem with Abravanel/Utah SO is paired with a fine account of the 6th Symphony which has been mentioned a number of times.

     

[vandermolen]

I'm pleased to say that my DVD recording of the documentary came out fine. I'll record it again tonight when it is repeated on BBC 4 and post the DVD to Jezetha on Tuesday.

I thought that the programme was great; more coherent, in a way, than the excellent 3 hour documentary shown here (UK) on New Year's Day. All the symphonies, other than Antartica, were featured and some works, like Dona Nobis Pacem, which did not feature at all in the earlier documentary (sadly no Sancta Civitas...his most beautiful choral work). The contributions from Ursula were very touching and the usual suspects were there; Michael Kennedy, Roy Douglas and Anthony Payne who, surprisingly I thought in view of his work on Elgar's Third Symphony said that he thought that VW was the greater composer. I enjoyed the description of VW's physical appearance; "like a sofa with the stuffing falling out" Some fascinating, albeit brief, archive film footage of Vaughan Williams as well as his spoken commentary for the documentary film "Dim Little Island"  Despite the more candid revelations about VW's affair with Ursula, I thought that he still emerged as a thoroughly decent and humane individual as well as being such a wonderful composer. The story of Ralph, Adeline and Ursula all together, holding hands during a wartime bombing raid was very touching (no pun intended). Evidently Ralph and Adeline were in their separate beds, with Ursula lying on a mattress between them.

As for Dona Nobis Pacem, I agree with Johan (Christo) that the best recordings are Thomson on Chandos or Boult on an excellent two disc EMI collection (the best of those compilations I think).

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Great review, Jeffrey! First Lethe, then you - now I am really looking forward to watching it (but receiving the DVD first, of course).

[vandermolen]

Great review, Jeffrey! First Lethe, then you - now I am really looking forward to watching it (but receiving the DVD first, of course).

Good Morning Johan and thank you!

You will enjoy the programme, I am sure. The Dona Nobis Pacem sequence was especially good, with effective synchronization of scenes of artillery fire on the Western Front in World War One, with the more explosive moments from the score.  I thought that this worked much better than the scenes of horrific carnage from modern conflict, juxtaposed with the 9th Symphony in the earlier documentary. It was certainly less contrived and it rang far truer in this case. Last night's programme also featured a lovely vocal setting "Silence and Music" to words by Ursula and one of "Four Last Songs", neither of which I had heard before. It is a bank holiday here on Monday, so I will post on Tuesday.

Jeffrey

[vandermolen]

     This recording of Dona Nobis Pacem with Abravanel/Utah SO is paired with a fine account of the 6th Symphony which has been mentioned a number of times.

     

This is currently available in this format:

[Thom]

Excellent review Jeffrey, thanks. I have bought the 3 hour documentary you were referring to, and it was/is very interesting indeed. So am now looking forward to watch this recent documentary. VW's music is very dear to me and that being the case it is important for me also to know more about the man behind the music.

Th.

[vandermolen]

Strongly recommend the CD below. It is my favourite of the various two CD collections of music by Vaughan Williams. It contains Boults fine recording of Dona Nobis Pacem and some other fine lesser known works, including the beautiful Magnificat, Sargent's underrated recording of the Tallis Fantasia (which is the version I most often play...he is an underrated conductor), Larry Adler performing the late Harmonica Romance and much else besides.  Furthermore, it sees the return of a quirkily memorable work, which I really like, the "Fantasia (quasi variazone) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune." This originally appeared with Boult's EMI recording of the Ninth Symphony and has not been seen since; despite my brother commenting to me that it reminded him of that old children's favourite "Sparky's Magic Piano", I think that it is a fine and unusual work, with the piano playing a dominant role. It is one of those late craggy works by Vaughan Williams (like the late Violin Sonata and Epithalamion), which are oddly compelling.

[vandermolen]

Excellent review Jeffrey, thanks. I have bought the 3 hour documentary you were referring to, and it was/is very interesting indeed. So am now looking forward to watch this recent documentary. VW's music is very dear to me and that being the case it is important for me also to know more about the man behind the music.

Th.

Thom,

You will really enjoy the new documentary. I think that it compliments the earlier one. This year has seen 4 great hours of VW documentaries. Really though, the BBC should have scheduled the programme on one of the main channels (BBC1 or BBC 2) instead of the satellite channel.

Jeffrey

[Lethevich]

Strongly recommend the CD below. It is my favourite of the various two CD collections of music by Vaughan Williams. It contains Boults fine recording of Dona Nobis Pacem and some other fine lesser known works, including the beautiful Magnificat, Sargent's underrated recording of the Tallis Fantasia (which is the version I most often play...he is an underrated conductor), Larry Adler performing the late Harmonica Romance and much else besides.  Furthermore, it sees the return of a quirkily memorable work, which I really like, the "Fantasia (quasi variazone) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune." This originally appeared with Boult's EMI recording of the Ninth Symphony and has not been seen since; despite my brother commenting to me that it reminded him of that old children's favourite "Sparky's Magic Piano", I think that it is a fine and unusual work, with the piano playing a dominant role. It is one of those late craggy works by Vaughan Williams (like the late Violin Sonata and Epithalamion), which are oddly compelling.

Sounds neat If I grab this one, what would you recommend for Sanca Civitas, or is Hickox the only option? (I am now determined to make a stab at hearing all the RVW I possibly can - I'm surprised how much I have missed.)

[Thom]

I am now determined to make a stab at hearing all the RVW I possibly can - I'm surprised how much I have missed.

Go for it all! You can't go wrong here. I love everything by him. Not one of his excellent symphonies is like its predecessor. His vocal works are magnificent, and his concertos are favourites of mine (the Oboe concerto, the Concerto Grosso and the wonderful partita for double string orchestra). As far as the sancta civitas is concerned, mine is the Hickox one, which suits me fine, but i can not compare.

Th.

[vandermolen]

Sounds neat If I grab this one, what would you recommend for Sanca Civitas, or is Hickox the only option? (I am now determined to make a stab at hearing all the RVW I possibly can - I'm surprised how much I have missed.)

Lethe,

This is my favourite version of Sancta Civitas, conducted by David Willcocks and it would be my top recommendation for its ethereal atmosphere. It is, however, the one which I grew up with on LP, so there is a sentimental attachment. Rozhdesvensky recorded a fine version on BBC Radio Classics (with Symphony 5) but that is long gone and only available at absurdly inflated prices. You wont go wrong with the Hickox CD which is a great coupling but don't rule out the Willcocks recording.


Jeffrey

[vandermolen]

Strongly recommend this excellent new release. Sargent's VW No 4 (BBC SO) was previously on BBC Radio Classics (with Stokowski's No 8, now on Cala). I think that Sargent's performance of Symphony 4 is my favourite, especially the first movement which has a relentless urgency, unlike any other recording (even VW's own). It is from the 1963 Proms and there is a great atmosphere. The unique coupling; Sibelius Symphony 4 is also desirable. A "warmer" performance than usual but with great atmosphere too:

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Any chance you'll upload it somewhere? I'm not too much of an expert in video things (but in audio ) - But I know the knowledge about all this is at http://www.doom9.org/ forum...

[Papy Oli]

I am not sure if the BBC I-Player is available from outside the UK but the documentary is now available on there :

clicky

I had never heard any RVW before seeing it last night on BBC 4 - I must confess only 2 extracts caught my attention for further exploration : the Tallis Fantasia, and the 5th symphony.

High quality documentary in any case - well worth the licence fee 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am not sure if the BBC I-Player is available from outside the UK but the documentary is now available on there :

clicky

I had never heard any RVW before seeing it last night on BBC 4 - I must confess only 2 extracts caught my attention for further exploration : the Tallis Fantasia, and the 5th symphony.

High quality documentary in any case - well worth the licence fee 

Can you actually download it?

[Papy Oli]

Hi Johan

It is actually downloadable but with some restrictions :

Downloading a programme means that the whole programme is sent as a .wmv file to your computer. This programme file is will be stored on your hard drive for up to 30 days. You then have up to seven days from when you start watching the programme to when it will expire. You can manage all your downloaded programme files through the BBC iPlayer Download Manager, which you can access or by clicking on My Downloads.

Note: You cannot watch a programme until all of it has downloaded to your computer, but you can store it for up to 30 days in your Download Manager. You then have up to seven days from when you start watching a programme to finish watching it.

You need to use the BBC iPlayer Download Manager to do this, and only computers with Windows XP or Vista operating systems can download programmes. This is due to the digital rights management and sharing technology we use.

Could you actually watch the documentary itself on the link i gave ? just curious if they allow this out of the UK, for licence purposes...

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

I am not sure if the BBC I-Player is available from outside the UK but the documentary is now available on there :

"Sorry, this programme is only available to play in the UK"

While you watch it and have it fully cached, maybe you find the video file in your browsers temporary location? Watch out for file date and size which correspond with your video file. This way, I had some success with flash files and opera (Opera stores in a directory called 'cache4').
Just an idea.

EDIT: Well accoording to papy's latest posting it's drm'ed wmv, which is bad.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I use Opera, too. Blasted drm! I wonder whether this .wmv file will selfdestruct after 30 days?!