Vaughan Williams's Veranda

[vandermolen]

Ahh, I like your stories! I suspect that my family home never has had the experience of RVW's music filling its rooms. I had some minor classical music drifting through my life when I was a kid. The real fire for classical music did not really grow in me until I was in my mid-20s going to graduate school. RVW's music was brought into my life by my girl friend at the time. I had fallen in love with her and couldn't imagine a life without her (ah, so naive one cane be at times). I remember one morning waking up with her and she insisted on us listening to "The Lark Ascending" (which I had never heard). I still remember laying in bed snuggled up to the greatest love of my life listening to the intricate beauty of the violin soaring towards the skies. Such beauty!  I was so in love with this woman so I forever associate the music of The Lark Ascending with her existence and our time together.  The music brings back so many memories of her spark and intrinsic beauty. She and RVW made a fan on me that day...   

That's a very romantic association - how nice. My wife and daughter do not share my taste in classical music. 'MUST WE LISTEN TO THIS NOISE?' Is as romantic as it gets for me. Or 'IT SOUNDS LIKE WORLD WAR THREE IS GOING ON!' 

[Karl Henning]

Or 'IT SOUNDS LIKE WORLD WAR THREE IS GOING ON!' 

And that's the Henning you listen to! 

[Moonfish]

That's a very romantic association ..

It is indeed sweet to have a romantic link to RVW's music. His auditory soundscape seems to resonate with such feelings... Reality cease to exist when I hear the incantation poetically referred to as The Lark Ascending!   0:)


Again!! Third time in two days.
Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony               London PO/Boult     (1952)

I am getting fond of the inquiring tone of the trumpet in the 2nd movement.     Does the last movement invoke themes later used in Sinfonia Antarctica? Perhaps it his use of voice that makes me see it that way. I cannot wait to explore the other Boult performances in this box. Very promising!

from
[asin] B00007A3E2[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Huge fan of A Pastoral Symphony!

[Moonfish]

Huge fan of A Pastoral Symphony!

I can't decide if I should listen to it one more time or move on to the Fifth...
Decisions, decisions!

[North Star]

Boult's Pastoral for me too, the EMI recording with New Philharmonia

[vandermolen]

And that's the Henning you listen to! 

It most certainly is! 

[vandermolen]

Boult's Pastoral for me too, the EMI recording with New Philharmonia

The new Mark Elder recording is wonderful although the soprano is too closely recorded in the last movement. Previn remains my favourite on RCA.

[vandermolen]

It is indeed sweet to have a romantic link to RVW's music. His auditory soundscape seems to resonate with such feelings... Reality cease to exist when I hear the incantation poetically referred to as The Lark Ascending!   0:)


Again!! Third time in two days.
Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony               London PO/Boult     (1952)

I am getting fond of the inquiring tone of the trumpet in the 2nd movement.     Does the last movement invoke themes later used in Sinfonia Antarctica? Perhaps it his use of voice that makes me see it that way. I cannot wait to explore the other Boult performances in this box. Very promising!

from
[asin] B00007A3E2[/asin]

That is my favourite set of the VW symphonies and you get the Everest Ninth thrown in which was not a Decca recording + speeches by Boult and the great man himself after Symphony 6: 'I want to thank you most heartily...'

[Mirror Image]

It is indeed sweet to have a romantic link to RVW's music. His auditory soundscape seems to resonate with such feelings... Reality cease to exist when I hear the incantation poetically referred to as The Lark Ascending!   0:)


Again!! Third time in two days.
Vaughan Williams: Pastoral Symphony               London PO/Boult     (1952)

I am getting fond of the inquiring tone of the trumpet in the 2nd movement.     Does the last movement invoke themes later used in Sinfonia Antarctica? Perhaps it his use of voice that makes me see it that way. I cannot wait to explore the other Boult performances in this box. Very promising!

from
[asin] B00007A3E2[/asin]

I like that first set of Boult's 'okay' but I prefer his later EMI recordings. I thought you weren't that big of a fan of RVW's music, Peter? Let me say this: you MUST conquer the middle trilogy of symphonies. There is so much musical treasure here that it just blows my mind that you've somehow neglected these monumental works or is this just my imagination playing tricks on me again?

[Moonfish]

I like that first set of Boult's 'okay' but I prefer his later EMI recordings. I thought you weren't that big of a fan of RVW's music, Peter? Let me say this: you MUST conquer the middle trilogy of symphonies. There is so much musical treasure here that it just blows my mind that you've somehow neglected these monumental works or is this just my imagination playing tricks on me again?

Ha ha! Are you trying to convert me , John? I have been perusing the 5th quite a bit, but 4 and 6 are not yet landmarks. The 7th and 8th are preferred in my book, while I am having issues with 1 and 2. As time goes by I will certainly remedy the situation as I do like RVW quite a bit.

[Mirror Image]

Ha ha! Are you trying to convert me , John? I have been perusing the 5th quite a bit, but 4 and 6 are not yet landmarks. The 7th and 8th are preferred in my book, while I am having issues with 1 and 2. As time goes by I will certainly remedy the situation as I do like RVW quite a bit.

Yes, I'm trying to convert you! The 4th and 6th aren't easy nuts to crack, but I think if one is already attuned to RVW's sonic-world, then it's only a matter of time before they 'click' for you. What makes these two particular symphonies interesting is their contrasts with the 3rd and 5th. The thunderous, almost sinister opening to the 4th must have shocked audiences who only associated RVW with more pastoral music. Give them time. I think you'll come away with a greater appreciation for them as time marches on.

[Christo]

Huge fan of A Pastoral Symphony!

I want it for my funeral. But my wife is only prepared to allow me the everlasting grace of the Tallis Fantasia. No doubt, she is suspicious of the sufi gnostic in me and trying to Christianize me a bit over my dead body. I agreed on her terms. 

[Karl Henning]

Hah!

[vandermolen]

I noticed the obituary of Michael Kennedy in the paper today at the age of 88. He wrote the official musical biography of the composer and numerous LP and CD booklet notes for VW's music. He also wrote books on Elgar, Britten, Walton and Richard Strauss. As a young man in the Navy during the war he wrote a fan letter to Vaughan Williams and they became friends. The last photo of Vaughan Williams in 1958 was with Michael Kennedy. RIP.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11319299/Michael-Kennedy-obituary.html

[Karl Henning]

I read that bio!  And should now read it again, having since listened to so much more of the music

[calyptorhynchus]

Michael Kennedy was a great champion of VW's music and British music generally. He was a skillful writer and I have enjoyed everything of his I have read.

[vandermolen]

I have been listening a lot to the 'Five Tudor Portraits' (1936) a work that I had largely ignored for many years. It is a much greater work than I had realised. It is a choral setting of poems by  the Tudor poet John Skelton (c.1460-1529) and apparently Elgar gave Vaughan Williams the idea for the work. It is a bit in the spirit of Dyson's 'Canterbury Pilgrims' but more like Karl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' (a work that I don't like very much, apart from the famous bit). The Five Tudor Portraits are amongst the most 'English' of Vaughan Williams's compositions and will not be everyone's cup of tea (which is also very English ) but it is a lot of fun, very enjoyable and there are some passages of great beauty. It is a deeper work than I had thought. There are a few recordings and this is my favourite, also for the marvellous couplings:
[asin]B00000DOCS[/asin]

[Christo]

Michael Kennedy was a great champion of VW's music and British music generally. He was a skillful writer and I have enjoyed everything of his I have read.

My words. Always read everything he wrote with pleasure as it was always both very well informed and stimulating.

[vandermolen]

This is as good a version as I have heard of Dona Nobis Pacem, the composer's 1936 choral/orchestral plea for peace as the war clouds began to gather over Europe. Great to hear an American orchestra play this music, bringing back memories of Abravanel's fine Utah recording which was my first contact with the work when I took the LP out of a library in the early 1970s. Of course Walt Whitman features a lot as he was Vaughan Williams's favourite composer as a young man. The Whitman is interspersed with settings from the Bible. Considering that the 'Dirge for Two Veterans' was composed decades before the rest of it the whole things hangs together very well. I have been lucky to see this great work performed live in London. Wonderful recording and deeply moving performance - the message is as apposite now as it was then. The coupling is enjoyable but it is to the Vaughan Williams that I shall be returning:
[asin]B00UART4JQ[/asin]
The CD contains the last booklet notes written by Michael Kennedy who sadly passed away before the CD was released. It also contains a nice photo of Vaughan Williams. I always like the booklets to feature a photo of the composer.