Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[greg]

I listened to the 6th for the 3rd or 4th time yesterday.
Strangely, the first time I loved it, the 2nd I was repelled, and just yesterday I loved it again.
I think it must've been that theme in the opening movement which has a tendency to turn me off- it sounds almost jazzy, something I can't stand in orchestral music. But if I ignore that, and focus on the dense orchestral textures (especially in the 3rd movement, too), it starts sounding better to me.
The last movement I've always liked...... i probably said it before, but after reading Karl's review about it, I was really inspired to take a listen! There's an inflection that I hear: one note, a third up, and then back to the same note- rhythm being 16th, 16th, and 8th in the strings.....  it makes me wonder if he was familiar with the last movement of Mahler's 10th, since they sorta use the inflection in the same way- to create interest in what might be too much of a slow, basic texture (although their textures are completely different in this case) that might lead to boredom. But hey, it's just a the space of a quarter-note, just got me thinking.....(most likely there isn't a connection)

[M forever]

I have another question: is the wind machine actually meant to be offstage? Also, in some places, e.g. about 7 mins. into the first movement, there is a drum roll which accompanies the vocalist (another great eerie effect which I hadn't mentioned before when I talked about "layers" of more and more dehumanized sound) - is that supposed to be offstage, too? In the recording I listened to today (Thomson/LSO), it sounds like it its.

[M forever]

My only regret is that I did not know of Vaughan Williams at an early enough age to make myself a nuisance to my family 

That's a cryptic remark. Or maybe it is a joke I don't get. Please explain!

[lukeottevanger]

M, have you heard Vw's 3rd yet? It also features some of the features you've mentioned in the 7th, and to equally potent effect, IMO. There are haunting vocalises of the same sort, and, equally striking, the use of distant fanfares, played on 'out of tune' natural harmonics, which is both highly original and inspired as well as peculiarly affecting. It's surely symbolic in many ways too, of course, but we're not allowed to say that anymore.

[scarpia]

I'm still working my way through V-W's non-wind-machine oeuvre, and have listened to a few recordings of the Sixth.  Boult's 60's recording didn't really engage me, and I decided that I wanted to listen to a recording with better, modern engineering.  I've listened to Haitink's LPO recording, and Hickox's recent LSO release (SACD) on Chandos.

I find the sixth more impressive than the later symphonies.  The opening is superb (especially getting away from Boult, who leaned on the bass drum too hard) and I like the way the syncopated passage that leads out of the opening is gradually transformed into the gentle melody that returns in very lush orchestration at the end.  The return of the opening motif that occurs in mid movement is also very impressive, in how it transforms the character of the theme.

My favorite part of the symphony is probably the opening of the second movement.  I enjoy the metamorphosis that occurs in the statement of the main theme.  Originally the melody incorporates a three-note rhythmic motif and unfolds against a single note insistently sustained by brass.  Later the rhythmic motif is transferred to the single note and the melody is played legato.   When this material returns at the end, more agressively, it strikes me that it is similar in sonority to the close of Holst's "Mars, Bringer of War."  The repeated staccato notes by brass and drums, the frenetic string figuration, the block chords, widely voiced with prominent low brass, all bring the Holst piece to mind.

The Scherzo is engaging, and I think I finally have an idea of what the finale is supposed to be.  Boult and Haitink both play this piece very softly throughout, which challenges the dynamic range of my ears, equipment and listening room (crickets).  But Hickox plays it less softly with some dynamic variation which brings out a lot that I didn't hear in the other recordings.  

[M forever]

M, have you heard Vw's 3rd yet? It also features some of the features you've mentioned in the 7th, and to equally potent effect, IMO.

No, I haven't. Do you know the answers to my questions above?

[karlhenning]

That's a cryptic remark. Or maybe it is a joke I don't get. Please explain!

In the post before mine, Mark recalled his parents' sonic horror of the Vaughan Williams Fourth:

The 4th symphony was the first RVW I ever heard, and my parents were dead set against it. "Turn off that crazy modern music!" The 8th symphony elicited a look of mere annoyance from them, accompanied by a "must you listen to that now?" This was in the late 1960s.

I think that the only Vaughan Williams I knew before I had left to live on my own, was perhaps one (not-all-that-absorptive) listen to the Tallis Fantasia, and three or four hymns from the English Hymnal . . . nothing to cause my parents any especial anguish.

[vandermolen]

 In the meantime, I amuse myself with Berglund's interpretations of the Fourth and Sixth - both making a strong impression at first hearing:

                     

I'm pleased, Johan, that you're enjoying this release; a great addition to the discography. What do you think of the Gibson version of Symphony No 5 ?

[Christo]

I'm pleased, Johan, that you're enjoying this release; a great addition to the discography. What do you think of the Gibson version of Symphony No 5 ?

The pleasure is absolutely mine  . Yes, I'm very happy to have finally come across these two Berglund performances. I like both, very much so indeed. His Fourth is probably among the very best and his Sixth, though with a slightly less perfect orchestra, is also a great interpretation. I played the Sixth again, today, and fell in deep love with it - a great reading, continued for the whole lenght of all four movements and till the very end. Mightily impressive.

In the meantime, I hardly listened to Gibson's Fifth - also new to me. What I think I heard, are three fine, concentrated and somewhat`solemn' movements and a slightly disappointing Finale / Passacaglia - at least, that was my first impression. Will report on Gibson later, as soon as I gave it the attention it deserves. BTW: what do you think?   

[lukeottevanger]

No, I haven't. Do you know the answers to my questions above?

It's not a score I have, but I don't think they are supposed to be offstage, no. According to an article I just found, though, the singers were offstage in the first performance (implying that this was an exception). Here's the article - it contains some reinforcement of the points that were made about the symphony earlier:

It is doubtful whether any symphony has ever been the object of so much anticipatory curiosity as Vaughan Williams's `Sinfonia Antartica', which was announced last spring at the end of a series of performances of all his then existing six symphonies by the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, and was given its first performance there by that orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli on 14 January. (A week later they gave the first London performance in the Royal Festival Hall.)
By calling it `Sinfonia Antartica', the composer reverts to the practice of his first three symphonies, the 'Sea', the 'London' and the 'Pastoral', which unlike the next three are known only by their descriptive name, and not by key or number. 
The `Sinfonia Antartica' is the most pictorial of them all. Suggested by the film `Scott of the Antarctic', for which Vaughan Williams wrote the music in 1949, it uses a number of themes from the film score, some for symphonic development, some - representing whales or penguins, or depicting glacial landscapes - for atmosphere, and some for both. The vast orchestra includes almost everything that tinkles, jingles or bangs, even bells, a vibraphone and a windmachine, as well as women's voices without words. (At the first performance the singers were placed off-stage.) Out of it all the composer has made a work which stands firmly on its own formal and musical merits, as real a symphony as Beethoven's `Pastoral, in which nothing, not even the windmachine, gives the impression of being used for symphonically irrelevant pictorial effect. It would be absurd to listen to the symphony without thinking of the 'programme', but even the middle movements which are like three descriptive interludes between the more 'symphonic' outer movements, stand as pure music. The second, for all its whales and penguins (which are not to be seen in the music unless you have been told that they are there) is an originally constructed scherzo, very characteristic of the composer. The third, called 'Landscape', vividly suggests the scene described in the quotation from Coleridge that heads it: `Ye ice-falls! ... Motionless torrents! Silent cataracts!' Yet with the Intermezzo, which follows it without a break, and in which the isolation, the waning hope and the serene resignation of Scott's party are most poignantly expressed, it forms one of the most beautiful and daring slow movement that Vaughan Williams has ever written, as purely musical in its use of the most picturesque sounds as the slow movement of Bartok's `Music for strings, percussion and celesta', which its orchestration often recalls.
Underlying all the varied descriptive writing of these three movements is an emotional unity that links them both with one another and with the two outer movements. These, although called simply 'Prelude' and 'Epilogue' contain the symphonic essence of the work. They are at once the least and the most pictorial movements: for it is in them that the women's voices and the wind machine are used to depict most graphically the vast desolation of the Antarctic, yet it is they that have the themes of the most symphonic cut developed the most extensively and symphonically. Even these themes, with their strong intervals and constant thrust upwards, express something extramusical: not anything that can be painted, but the unconquerable spirit of aspiration suggested by the quotations written above the two movements in the score. The one is from Shelley's `Prometheus Unbound': '...To defy power which seems omnipotent Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent ... This is alone life, joy, empire and victory'; the other is from Captain Scott's last journal: 'I do not regret this journey, we took risks, we knew we took them, things have come out against us, therefore we have no cause for complaint. The affinity of mood of these two quotations reflects the musical affinity of the two movements This mood is most nobly and unmistakably expressed in the opening theme of the Prelude and at the end of the symphony Vaughan Williams recapitulates this whole opening section. The effect is tremendous, conclusive, finally reinforcing the formal and emotional unity of the whole work.
Yet it has this effect only because it was not necessary, because that unity was already achieved in the Epilogue's own themes and their development. If this had not been so the recapitulation would be powerless to unify the work. And just as Vaughan Williams is too great an artist to rely on such a device to conceal jerry- building, so he disdains to use it even as an effective finish for a symphony that is in no sense jerrybuilt. From almost every point of view, formal and emotional, the perfect place to end the work, rounding off the form beautifully, would be the climax of this recapitulation of the first heroic section of the Prelude. But that would be too easy, too obvious for Vaughan Williams, so he does the still more obvious - yet the less obvious, for a lesser composer would hardly have thought of doing it, nor have dared to if he had thought - by going on to recapitulate also the second, descriptive theme of the Prelude, depicting the Antarctic scene. It is with this that the symphony ends, dies down, as the composer puts it, `to nothing except for the voices and the Antarctic wind. The effect of this is even finer, and once it is done it is clear how sure the composer's judgment has been. Programmatically it is right, because it corresponds to the final annihilation of Scott's party amid an unmoved desolation. And formally far from destroying the already rounded-off form, it throws it into perspective by letting it recede from the listener, by projecting the symphony, its heroic mood and the heroic venture that it has portrayed, and restoring in the audience the emotion of observers of, not participants in, that heroism, an emotion mixed of admiration and gratuitous but inevitable pity.

[drogulus]

That's a cryptic remark. Or maybe it is a joke I don't get. Please explain!

     I did that to my family in the mid-'60s. IOW, I know what he means. It's something like "why can't he listen to something nice like _____".
     

Here's the article - it contains some reinforcement of the points that were made about the symphony earlier:

     It's an interesting article, though I wonder how wide-spread the opinion was back then that

the composer has made a work which stands firmly on its own formal and musical merits, as real a symphony as Beethoven's `Pastoral, in which nothing, not even the windmachine, gives the impression of being used for symphonically irrelevant pictorial effect.

   

The Scherzo is engaging, and I think I finally have an idea of what the finale is supposed to be.  Boult and Haitink both play this piece very softly throughout, which challenges the dynamic range of my ears, equipment and listening room (crickets).  But Hickox plays it less softly with some dynamic variation which brings out a lot that I didn't hear in the other recordings. 

     Vaughan Williams congratulated the orchestra including the "lady harpist" on the Boult/Decca LP for playing "absolute pianissimo". I remember that from the LP which featured the recorded voice of the composer at the end.

     I never felt the want of dynamics, since I more or less grew up with the Boult LP. The Abravanel doesn't have much in the way of dynamics either.

[lukeottevanger]

   
     Vaughan Williams congratulated the orchestra including the "lady harpist" on the Boult/Decca LP for playing "absolute pianissimo". I remember that from the LP which featured the recorded voice of the composer at the end.

Me too. I can still hear that - '....and you, the lady harpist'. There was something very haunting about the way his voice appeared after the intense quiet of the last movement. I agree with the following, too, not surprisingly:

     I never felt the want of dynamics, since I more or less grew up with the Boult LP.

[M forever]

Does anyone have that track of VW speaking? That would be interesting to hear.

[Lethevich]

Does anyone have that track of VW speaking? That would be interesting to hear.

It is unfortunately very short. Link

[vandermolen]

The pleasure is absolutely mine  . Yes, I'm very happy to have finally come across these two Berglund performances. I like both, very much so indeed. His Fourth is probably among the very best and his Sixth, though with a slightly less perfect orchestra, is also a great interpretation. I played the Sixth again, today, and fell in deep love with it - a great reading, continued for the whole lenght of all four movements and till the very end. Mightily impressive.

In the meantime, I hardly listened to Gibson's Fifth - also new to me. What I think I heard, are three fine, concentrated and somewhat`solemn' movements and a slightly disappointing Finale / Passacaglia - at least, that was my first impression. Will report on Gibson later, as soon as I gave it the attention it deserves. BTW: what do you think?   

I'm very fond off all three versions of the symphonies. I agree that Berglund's No 4 is the highlight, better that the composer's own I think  Do you know the new Somm CD of VW conducting his 5th Symphony from the Proms in the early 1950s? That is an essential CD for VW fans I think.

best wishes

Jeffrey

[drogulus]

It is unfortunately very short. Link

      Thank you. It's a thrill to hear it again.

[lukeottevanger]

Yes, thanks, same for me. My wife wondered what on earth it was, as it suddenly emerged from the speakers this morning. 

[Christo]

It is unfortunately very short. Link

Short, but wonderful. I always loved the Octagenarian's great sense of humour, even in this clearly improvised (otherwise he wouldn't have used the term "wonderful" three times, imo) little speech. In his thank to the orchestra: "Indeed, in some cases your playing was so clear, that all my faults came to the surface. I hope a few virtues have come out as well." 

And in his praise for their performance of the fourth movement, Epilogue, calling it "a wonderful feat of endurance to play an absolute pianissimo for three hours on end".  [my articulation]

Do you know the new Somm CD of VW conducting his 5th Symphony from the Proms in the early 1950s? That is an essential CD for VW fans I think.

Yes I do and yes, I totally agree. A month ago, I smuggled it into the house just as you do. 

[M forever]

It is unfortunately very short. Link

Still very interesting to hear. Thanks a lot!

That reminds of a similar spontaneous speech which I have read about, but never heard. When Karajan recorded "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in Dresden for EMI in the 70s (when Dresden was in the communist Eastern part of Germany), he made a short speech at the end of the sessions when they had recorded everything except for the overture and the tape was running, thanking the orchestra and chorus for the work they had done, and apparently, he also made a few remarks about the political situation and what a shame it was that East and West were separated. The secret police agents who were there to monitor the sessions didn't like that and demanded from the EMI engineer that the tape should be deleted or handed over, but I think they somehow managed to smuggle it out. I winder if that is available somewhere. It would be very interesting to hear.

[vandermolen]

Yes I do and yes, I totally agree. A month ago, I smuggled it into the house just as you do.