Comparison Recordings of works by Vaughan
Williams:
Symphony #6, Leonard Slatkin, Philh.
Orch. RCA Red Seal CD 09026 60556-2
Symphony #6, Stokowski, NYPO [AAD mono]
Sony SMK 58933
Flos Campi, Lazarus, etc. Abravanel,
USO [ADD] Vanguard CD OVC 4053
Sym. #6, Dona Nobis Pacem; Abravanel,
USO [ADD] Vanguard CD SVC 7
Dona Nobis Pacem; Shaw, Atlanta SO Telarc
[Surround Sound] CD-80479
Both Boise, Idaho,
where I live, and Salt Lake City, Utah,
are considered conservative Mormon towns,
but conservatism is a relative thing.
On Saturdays the rowdies from Salt Lake
City have to drive the 400+ miles up
to Boise to raise hell because they
can’t do that at home. On a Friday night
the headlights of the line of automobiles
on the highway west out of Salt Lake
City to the Nevada border, where gambling
and drinking and fooling around are
unrestricted, can be seen from the moon.
But times are changing in Salt Lake
City, which now has air pollution, water
shortages, urban sprawl and a decaying
downtown infrastructure, and is no longer
the most beautiful City in the US between
St. Louis and San Francisco.
Musically the city
has been on the international map for
nearly 40 years. In 1947, Maurice de
Abravanel moved there and lived there
until he died in 1979, immersing himself
in the community and determined to build
a great Symphony Orchestra in the desert.
He succeeded beyond anyone’s most optimistic
predictions. He insisted on taking the
orchestra on tour throughout the state,
sometimes to small towns where the audience
were fewer in number than the players,
and if there was no money for salaries,
everybody played for free.
This version of Flos
Campi was always one of Abravanel’s
most beautiful recordings; to have it
in good DVD-Audio sound would be a true
delight. Unfortunately, this recording,
which was originally a fine two channel
master, has been artificially "enhanced"
and brightened to produce fake surround
sound. Even the two channel version
on this disk has the fake surround signal
embedded in it to be used by matrix
surround sound decoders. As a result
this rich warm sound is now stringy,
echo-y, verging on strident. The same
is true of the Symphony and the
Dona Nobis Pacem. This DVD cannot
be recommended. You are much better
off listening to the two channel CD
versions of these recordings. Residents
of Salt Lake City and friends of Maurice
de Abravanel who want to see and hear
the tribute material extras on this
disk will find that identical material
on several other of the Silverline releases
most of which can be strongly recommended,
especially the Swan Lake Ballet.
The great Sixth
Symphony of Vaughan Williams, after
the Fourth perhaps the second
most popular of his works in North America,
is more sympathetically played and receives
better recording in several other issues.
The brilliantly recorded Previn and
Slatkin versions are excellent, as well
as the venerable classic versions by
Stokowski and Boult, with their now
dated sonics.
Robert Shaw’s recording
of the Dona Nobis Pacem is one
of his finest performances and is presented
on the Telarc label in brilliant Surround
Sound, and sounds better in every way
than this Silverline disk. Shaw was
throughout his life a Protestant minister
with a strong sense of music as evangelism
and although I find him a bit too dignified
in some of the great Catholic musical
classics, here his natural enthusiasm
finds the perfect voice. Richard Hickox’s
version with the London Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus on EMI CD 54788 is also very
well reviewed, although I’ve not had
the pleasure of hearing it.
Paul Shoemaker
SILVERLINE CLASSICS 288239-9 [104.00]