Vaughan Williams's Veranda

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

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Christo

Quote from: Jezetha on June 28, 2008, 12:40:52 PM
I see this at eMusic. Worthwhile? How does it compare with the Naxos? Listening to a sample of the first movement of the Second SQ the Medici take things slower than the Maginni.

Nimbus ... that's really a name from the early prehistory of the CD era - and era itself almost over and closed, by now. So, how could we know?  8)
... 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

J.Z. Herrenberg

I went this morning to the Royal Library in The Hague. One of the books I came home with was the one by Wilfrid Mellers about RVW, which I intend to read asap.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Christo

Quote from: Jezetha on July 02, 2008, 11:24:39 AM
I went this morning to the Royal Library in The Hague. One of the books I came home with was the one by Wilfrid Mellers about RVW, which I intend to read asap.

After almost a lifetime spent with wrong friends, you are improving your life tremendously.  8)
... 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

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Christo on July 02, 2008, 11:33:51 AM
After almost a lifetime spent with wrong friends, you are improving your life tremendously.  8)

You flatter me, my friend.  8)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Christo

... 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

J.Z. Herrenberg

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 June 28, 2008, 12:40:52 PM


I see this at eMusic. Worthwhile? How does it compare with the Naxos? Listening to a sample of the first movement of the Second SQ the Medici take things slower than the Maginni.

I have these recordings in a nice Nimbus box set "A Portrait of Vaughan Williams" I find the Nimbus recordings to be rather more "intimate" than the Naxos; a warmer recording. The performances are just as good, if a little more expressive.
"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).

sound67

There will be a lot of RVW in this year's proms (for obvious reasons). I think the whole cycle of symphonies will be played under various conductors.

Unfortunately, I will be able to attend just two: the 4th (under Yan-Pascal Tortelier) and the 8th (under Mark Elder).
"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

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: vandermolen on July 02, 2008, 02:16:07 PM
I have these recordings in a nice Nimbus box set "A Portrait of Vaughan Williams" I find the Nimbus recordings to be rather more "intimate" than the Naxos; a warmer recording. The performances are just as good, if a little more expressive.

I'll keep it in mind. Thanks, Jeffrey.

Quote from: sound67 on July 12, 2008, 01:09:50 AM
Unfortunately, I will be able to attend just two: the 4th (under Yan-Pascal Tortelier) and the 8th (under Mark Elder).

Just two... I have never heard RVW live in my life.  :'(
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Christo

Quote from: Jezetha on July 12, 2008, 01:43:00 AM
Just two... I have never heard RVW live in my life.  :'(

They'r seldom played, in these low countries. I myself heard an amateur performance of the Fifth in Amsterdam in 1989. And just one professional performance: the Sinfonia Antartica: Petri Sakari conducting Het Brabants Orkest in a Christmas concert (!) in 's-Hertogenbosch (nice spelling test for our Britons here  ;) ) in 2001. (The local elite poking their noses in embarrassment, impressed by the chilly sounds.)

That's all, apart from a handful of fine amateur performances of the Tallis Fantasia, Oboe concerto, Violin concerto, Dona Nobis Pacem, Hodie: A Christmas Cantata, also heard in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam from the 1980s till present. Even Tubin was better served: I attended fine performances of both his Fifth and Sixth symphonies here in Utrecht, under Arvo Volmer, and of a couple of his concertos elsewhere.
... 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

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: Christo on July 12, 2008, 02:51:23 AM
's-Hertogenbosch (nice spelling test for our Britons here  ;) )

Never mind the pronunciation.  ;D
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Dundonnell

Has Bernard Haitink never conducted any RVW in his native country then? Does he indeed conduct much at all in the Netherlands these days? I seem to recall that his relationship with the Concertgebouw was not entirely happy at the end of his time as Music Director(or am I mistaken?)

There is a Dutch/South African cricketer(yes I love cricket too :)) who plays English county cricket for Essex called Ryan ten Doeschate. His name gave people here some trouble in the pronounciation stakes :)

Christo

Quote from: Dundonnell on July 12, 2008, 03:46:36 AM
Has Bernard Haitink never conducted any RVW in his native country then? Does he indeed conduct much at all in the Netherlands these days? I seem to recall that his relationship with the Concertgebouw was not entirely happy at the end of his time as Music Director(or am I mistaken?)

There is a Dutch/South African cricketer(yes I love cricket too :)) who plays English county cricket for Essex called Ryan ten Doeschate. His name gave people here some trouble in the pronounciation stakes :)

Haitink - no, he never did, I'm afraid. His RVW adventures were solely constricted to his British exile.  ;) And you're not mistaken about his relationship with the Concertgebouw either, though the estrangement was temporary, af far as i can remember.

Is it really that hard to pronounce "Ryan"?  ;D
... 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

Dundonnell

Quote from: Christo on July 12, 2008, 03:57:58 AM
Haitink - no, he never did, I'm afraid. His RVW adventures were solely constricted to his British exile.  ;) And you're not mistaken about his relationship with the Concertgebouw either, though the estrangement was temporary, af far as i can remember.

Is it really that hard to pronounce "Ryan"?  ;D

If you live in Essex perhaps it is :) :) (Note for those outside Britain-Essex is notorious(no doubt disgracefully unfairly :)) for its less than cultured inhabitants-thus, 'Essex Girls')

karlhenning

Quote from: Christo on July 12, 2008, 03:57:58 AM
Haitink - no, he never did, I'm afraid. His RVW adventures were solely constricted to his British exile.  ;)

Not quite.  He's a Conductor Emeritus of the BSO, and the only occasion when I have heard a Vaughan Williams symphony live, was when he led a wicked smashing performance of the Sixth here at Symphony Hall.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: karlhenning on July 12, 2008, 05:35:45 AM
Not quite.  He's a Conductor Emeritus of the BSO, and the only occasion when I have heard a Vaughan Williams symphony live, was when he led a wicked smashing performance of the Sixth here at Symphony Hall.

Now now, Karl, mind your adverbs.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato


karlhenning

It would be obvious to a Bostonian, but wicked smashing and wickedly smashing mean entirely different things  8)

J.Z. Herrenberg

It's a wicked obvious distinction even to this Dutchman...  8)
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

karlhenning

Excellent, Johan! Er, I mean, wicked cool!