Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[karlhenning]

Much more realistic than with Elgar, would be the goal of 0% of people who are into classical music think Vaughan Williams is insignificant or that his music licks mudflaps at a Scranton truckstop.

[tjguitar]

MusicWeb seems to have added a convenient page w/ all their RVW reviews.

Neat. http://musicweb.uk.net/Vwilliams/revidx.htm

[vandermolen]

My personal list of preferred recordings of the RVW symphonies (but to be honest, I don't know all recordings):

No. 1  no real idea, but probably Boult
No. 2  Handley (EMI), Hickox in the original version (Chandos)
No. 3  Previn (RCA), Handley (EMI)
No. 4  Bernstein (Sony), Thomson (Chandos)
No. 5  Handley (EMI), Thomson (Chandos)
No. 6  Stokowski (Cala), Thomson (Chandos - I know, I'm the only one to cherish this slow, but powerfull and to my ears highly tragic rendering)
No. 7  Haitink (EMI) ?
No. 8  Barbirolli (RCA), Slatkin (RCA)
No. 9  Thomson (Chandos), Slatkin (RCA), Stokowski (Cala)

In my list, Thomson is the overall winner, followed by Handley, Boult, Previn and Stokowski.

An excellent choice of recordings.  You are not alone in admiring Bryden Thomson's Chandos No 6, I think that along with Boult (Decca), Boult (Dutton)  Abravanel and Stokowski, it is one of the greatest recordings of a symphony that is notoriously difficult to get right on disc. The BBC Music Magazine's guide to the 1000 best recordings agrees with you too!

[vandermolen]

MusicWeb seems to have added a convenient page w/ all their RVW reviews.

Neat. http://musicweb.uk.net/Vwilliams/revidx.htm

V helpful, thank you.

[Christo]

V helpful, thank you.

Very helpful indeed: the overview of the new releases per year shows an amazing abundancy: so many new recording, each year. Without this overview I wouldn't have learnt about the Dutton release of the orchestrated Six Studies on English Folk Song (1926, orch. 1957) [8:42] - for example. Anybody heard them?

[techniquest]

I can't comment on Hickox's recordings of the 6th and 8th, but his recording of the original London Symphony is just masterful. The live performance he gave at the 2005 Proms was also superb. The LSO under Norrington recorded a really excellent London Symphony too.
I haven't heard the Haitink 7, but after reading this thread I really must - it'll have to go some way if it's going to surpass the Handley recording.
I would also wholeheartedly recommend the examination of the Tallis Fantasia on the Radio 3 Discovering Music Archive
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/discoveringmusic/audioarchive.shtml

[Christo]

I can't comment on Hickox's recordings of the 6th and 8th, but his recording of the original London Symphony is just masterful. The live performance he gave at the 2005 Proms was also superb. The LSO under Norrington recorded a really excellent London Symphony too.

Of course! We all agree on that.

[karlhenning]

. . . the Dutton release of the orchestrated Six Studies on English Folk Song (1926, orch. 1957) [8:42] - for example. Anybody heard them?

Alas, I think the answer seems to be, "No" . . . .

[vandermolen]

Very helpful indeed: the overview of the new releases per year shows an amazing abundancy: so many new recording, each year. Without this overview I wouldn't have learnt about the Dutton release of the orchestrated Six Studies on English Folk Song (1926, orch. 1957) [8:42] - for example. Anybody heard them?

I have this CD now.  The orchestral (string orch) version of VW's Six Studies is quite beautiful. I played it the other day and my wife, who does not generally like my taste in music (I don't understand why not...how could anyone possibly not appreciate works like Pettersson's "The Dead in the Market Place" or Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" Symphony? )..anyway, she asked "what is this beautiful music?". So, a strong recommendation therefore. The other works on the Dutton CD are pleasant enough but it is well worth having for the VW.

[Kiddiarni]

I once played a piece by R. Vaughan Williams.

It was called "Ten Blake Songs" (with lyrics from William Blake poems) for oboe and Tenor.  It was hard to master, but once it was it sounded good. (Although it sounded better on the last practice than it did on the concert)

One thing I liked a lot about the pieces are footnotes by the author:

Note: The oboe parts of these songs may, in case of necessity, be played on a violin or (by transposing the songs down a tone) on a B flat clarinet - but neither of these expedients is advisable. R.V.W

Shows you how much the oboe owns.

[karlhenning]

Note: The oboe parts of these songs may, in case of necessity, be played on a violin or (by transposing the songs down a tone) on a B flat clarinet - but neither of these expedients is advisable.

Fascinating, Kiddiarni . . . I played two (or three?) of these with one of the tenors in the choir back in September.  I did not know (but it does not surprise me) that he actually got the idea from the composer (and if those expedients are not advisable, why does he give that advice, eh?)

Actually, we took a third route;  I sight-transposed the oboe part, so that the tenor could still sing in the notated key 

[Kiddiarni]

Fascinating, Kiddiarni . . . I played two (or three?) of these with one of the tenors in the choir back in September.  I did not know (but it does not surprise me) that he actually got the idea from the composer (and if those expedients are not advisable, why does he give that advice, eh?)

Actually, we took a third route;  I sight-transposed the oboe part, so that the tenor could still sing in the notated key 

I can't do that, sight-transposing that is.

And, interestingly enough, karlhenning I also played it with a tenor in my choir, and I actually played two pieces with him, the third one was solo.  We played The Infant Joy, nr. 1., and nr. 10, which I don't remember the name of, and then the tenor sung nr. 6, The Shepherd, solo.

So I take it you play the clarinet?

[knight66]

Oddly, at a christening I was asked to sing one of these songs unaccompanied. Also as I am a baritone, it was transposed down. So not exactly authentic in practice. it was the song that starts off....Little Lamb, who made thee? That is the Infant Joy song I think.

Mike

[Bonehelm]

I just listened to his Fantasia on Greensleeves, what a beautiful piece! 

[Kiddiarni]

Oddly, at a christening I was asked to sing one of these songs unaccompanied. Also as I am a baritone, it was transposed down. So not exactly authentic in practice. it was the song that starts off....Little Lamb, who made thee? That is the Infant Joy song I think.

Mike

Naah... the Infant Joy is the one which starts off with "I have no name, I am but two days old".  If I remeber correctly there are two solo songs in the piece, that is two out of the total of ten.  One is the Shepherd and the other I don't remember...

[karlhenning]

I can't do that, sight-transposing that is.

And, interestingly enough, karlhenning I also played it with a tenor in my choir, and I actually played two pieces with him, the third one was solo.  We played The Infant Joy, nr. 1., and nr. 10, which I don't remember the name of, and then the tenor sung nr. 6, The Shepherd, solo.

So I take it you play the clarinet?

Guilty as charged :-)

[Kiddiarni]

I once played the clarinet.  I was tricked into believing that the Pink Panther theme was played on a Clarinet, and I wanted to play that tune, so I started playing the clarinet.  Later my teacher asked if I wanted to change to the oboe, and I did...

[karlhenning]

But . . . the Pink Panther theme is not played on the oboe either . . . .

[Kiddiarni]

Correct.  But my teacher said that only the toughest could handle the oboe, so I decided to swap.  I was 11 years old, you see... so I followed my teacher's recommendations.

[Christo]

And what's your opinion of Vaughan Williams' Oboe concerto?