Vaughan Williams Symphony Showdown: the 3rd vs. the 5th

[Sergeant Rock]

I have the Slatkin and Boult (EMI) performances of the 3rd.

Don't know the Slatkin but the RCA Previn along with that of 'A London Symphony' and Symphony 8 are the best I have heard. There are two Boult recordings, Decca and EMI - both very good.

You're welcome, Ray. My current favorite Pastoral is Elder's. The Boult performance you own is great. His cycle on EMI is what I cut my teeth with for these symphonies.

My favorite Pastoral is Haitink's. Gramophone's Building a Library said this about it:

"Clocking in at an eyebrow-raising 39:01' overall, Bernard Haitink's is the most intrepidly spacious Pastoral yet. That it's also one of the most sheerly gripping is a tribute both to the superlative contribution of the LPO as well as the towering humanity of the great Dutch maestro's patient view. EMI's top-notch sound captures every strand in the texture with the utmost realism and does full justice to Haitink's scrupulous control of dynamics (yes, there is a world of difference between pp and ppp, he seems to be reminding us time and again). Haitink taps into a vein of a stoic grandeur in the twilit threnody of the second movement that I find profoundly affecting. The Scherzo is invested with a weighty gravitas, its demeanour by turns intimidatingly sombre and grudgingly jubilant; listen out for the rasp of principal clarinet at the very top of its range as the orchestra is at last granted its full head either side of fig B (046'). The finale, in which Amanda Roocroft's smoky, mezzo-ish timbre casts a remote, yet alluring spell, allies epic breadth to keen concentration (needless to report, Haitink keeps a firm hand on the structural tiller throughout). Above all, it's a reading wholly without artifice, noble, inevitable and strong."


Their top choices: Previn, Handley, Haitink, Boult (Decca). The comparison didn't include Elder.

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

My favorite Pastoral is Haitink's. Gramophone's Building a Library said this about it:

"Clocking in at an eyebrow-raising 39:01' overall, Bernard Haitink's is the most intrepidly spacious Pastoral yet. That it's also one of the most sheerly gripping is a tribute both to the superlative contribution of the LPO as well as the towering humanity of the great Dutch maestro's patient view. EMI's top-notch sound captures every strand in the texture with the utmost realism and does full justice to Haitink's scrupulous control of dynamics (yes, there is a world of difference between pp and ppp, he seems to be reminding us time and again). Haitink taps into a vein of a stoic grandeur in the twilit threnody of the second movement that I find profoundly affecting. The Scherzo is invested with a weighty gravitas, its demeanour by turns intimidatingly sombre and grudgingly jubilant; listen out for the rasp of principal clarinet at the very top of its range as the orchestra is at last granted its full head either side of fig B (046'). The finale, in which Amanda Roocroft's smoky, mezzo-ish timbre casts a remote, yet alluring spell, allies epic breadth to keen concentration (needless to report, Haitink keeps a firm hand on the structural tiller throughout). Above all, it's a reading wholly without artifice, noble, inevitable and strong."


Their top choices: Previn, Handley, Haitink, Boult (Decca). The comparison didn't include Elder.

Sarge

Thank you, Sarge.  39.01 seems quite pastural!   

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I really have to listen to both of these again! I think I have only heard the 5th once!

[springrite]

This is like comparing an apple with ... well... another apple... 

So I picked the slightly better apple -- #5.

[Johnnie Burgess]

I would have picked symphony 5 but I also like symphony 3.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I'm more familiar with these now than I was at when this poll closed, but I prefer no. 3

[Andante]

I'm adopting a Zen approach. No.6 is the greatest. 

Asking me to choose is very cruel but I will follow your approach and say 6th or 7th it depends on what mood I am in at the time, sorry about that MI but you know me.