For anyone starting out upon a Vaughan Williams collection,
it would be hard to better this EMI compilation of classic recordings
reissued at bargain price. The recordings span a period of more
than thirty years but they are all impressive as sheer sound;
in fact the re-masterings make them sound better than ever.
And the artists are all figures closely associated with this
repertoire, who have set benchmarks in their interpretations.
The earliest of the recordings open the first disc. Sir John
Barbirolli recorded the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
and the Fantasia on Greensleeves back in 1962, but
the recordings sound wonderfully atmospheric and resonant, while
the performances are beautifully judged. Vernon Handley, whose
still recent death was such a tragic loss to English music in
particular, conducts both The Wasps Overture and that
extraordinarily intense masterpiece Flos Campi, in which
the relationship between the subtle orchestral textures and
the evocative wordless chorus is represented by a beautifully
atmospheric recording perspective.
The most recent of these performances was recorded by the young
Sarah Chang with the London Philharmonic and Bernard Haitink
in 1994. The Lark Ascending demands the utmost sensitivity
of the solo violinist and Chang’s pure tone is heard to fine
effect. The pacing of the interpretation is tauter and less
lingering than some performances – for example Hugh Bean (EMI)
and David Greed (Naxos) – but it remains valid and wholly pleasing.
It is good to have a representative performance conducted by
Sir David Willcocks, another artist who has been a great servant
to this composer over the years. Conducting the Jacques Orchestra
in 1968 in the Chapel of Trinity College Cambridge, he uses
the resonant acoustic to maximum effect, and the relationship
between string orchestra and harp is atmospherically captured.
This compilation covers many aspects of Vaughan Williams’s musical
personality, though it is not intended as a representative study
of the whole of his creative work. The so-called Norfolk
Rhapsody No. 1, the only survivor of an intended collection
of three such pieces, uses folk songs in an imaginative orchestral
context, and Boult’s performance is finely balanced in every
way.
The remaining items are all vocal. Recorded in 1970, the version
of On Wenlock Edge by the Music Group of London and Ian
Partridge can stand comparison with any of the many subsequent
performances, both artistically and sonically. From 1974 there
are songs from another great tenor, the late Anthony Rolfe Johnson,
accompanied by David Willison. Silent Noon is among the
most powerful of the composer’s early works, dating from 1903
when he had just turned thirty. Vaughan Williams was a late
developer and made his major breakthrough with the Sea Symphony
and when he was aged 38. Rolfe Johnson and Willison also perform
the distinctive cycle Songs of Travel, composed the year
after Silent Noon.
Vaughan Williams composed his Serenade to Music as a
tribute to the great conductor Sir Henry Wood, at whose Golden
Jubilee Concert in October 1938 it was premiered. The music’s
qualities of lyric beauty surely derived from the text he chose
to set, taken from the scene in Portia's garden in Act V of
The Merchant of Venice. The conception was also remarkable
for its choice of forces: sixteen solo singers, each of whom
had been closely associated with Sir Henry as their careers
had developed. In due course the composer made both choral and
orchestral versions in order to facilitate performances, but
it is the original version, as recorded here, that serves the
concept best. Under the direction of Sir Adrian Boult in 1969,
sixteen top singers of the day, many among them still household
names to music-lovers today, give a memorable performance that
does full justice to one of the most beautiful works Vaughan
Williams ever created.
Terry Barfoot
Details
CD 1
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis [16:14]; Fantasia
on Greensleeves [4:40]
Sinfonia of London/Sir John Barbirolli
Overture: The Wasps [10:08]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
The Lark Ascending [13:35]
Sarah Chang (violin); London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard
Haitink
Flos Campi [22:16]
Christopher Balmer (viola); Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
and Choir/Vernon Handley
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus [11:25]
Jacques Orchestra/Sir David Willcocks
CD 2
Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 [10:15]
New Phiharmonia Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult
On Wenlock Edge [21:29]
Ian Partridge (tenor); Music Group of London
Silent Noon [5:02]; Songs of Travel [26:20]
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor); David Willison (piano)
Serenade to Music [13:15]
Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong, Susan Longfield, Marie Hayward
(sopranos); Alfreda Hodgson, Gloria Jennings,, Shirely Minty,
Meriel Dickinson, (contraltos); Ian Partridge, Bernard Dickerson,
Wynford Evans, Kenneth Bowen (tenors); Richard Angas, John Carol
Case, John Noble, Christopher Keyte (basses); London Philharmonic
Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult
Recording details
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis: Temple Church London,
November 1962
Fantasia on Greensleeves: Kingsway Hall London 1962
Overture: The Wasps: St Augustine’s Kilburn June 1985
The Lark Ascending: Abbey Road London, December 1994
Flos Campi: Philharmonic Hall Liverpool September 1986
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus: Trinity College Cambridge
July 1968
Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1: Abbey Road London, January 1968
On Wenlock Edge: Abbey Road London, January 1970
Silent Noon, Songs of Travel: Hornsey Town Hall, April 1974
Serenade to Music: Kingsway Hall London, November 1969
EMI CLASSICS 6279102 [78:47 + 76.51] 
