RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Ralph VAUGHAN WILIAMS (1872-1968)
Job - A Masque for Dancing (1927-30) [43:43]
Symphony No. 9 in E minor (1956-57) [33:33]
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis
rec. May 2016, Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway; Domkirken, Bergen
CHANDOS CHSA5180 SACD [77:29]
Sir Andrew Davis recorded a complete Vaughan Williams symphony
cycle between 1990 and 1995 (review).
That was with the BBC Symphony Orchestra during his time as their distinguished
Chief Conductor and, interestingly, then as now he paired the Ninth Symphony
with Job. That was one of the two discs from the cycle that I acquired
at the time – the other was the recording of Sea Symphony.
Though that series of recordings is now over twenty years old I don’t
believe that this new Chandos disc heralds the start of a new Davis cycle.
Rather, I suspect it comes under the heading of unfinished business for the
label. The Ninth was, I believe, one of only two VW symphonies – the
other was Sinfonia Antartica - which the late Richard
Hickox did not record for them. Since Hickox's untimely death Andrew
Davis seems to have inherited his mantle as the label’s conductor of
choice for English repertoire so perhaps the intention is that he should complete
the unfinished Chandos cycle: that would be fitting.
The first thing that must be said is that the new Chandos recording sweeps
the board sonically. The 1995 Davis DDD recording (“Davis 1”),
originally issued by Teldec, was pretty good, as you might expect given that
the engineering was in the hands of Tony Faulkner and Mike Dutton with Andrew
Keener producing. However, the new Chandos (“Davis 2”), which
is a DSD recording, is just magnificent. There’s space round the sound
of the orchestra, detail is abundant and in a recording with great dynamic
range the loud passages have real impact. As for the organ contribution, well,
we’ll come to that in a moment. One thing I will say, though, is that
I also dug out for comparison Vernon Handley’s digital recording with
the LPO. That recording, which I have as an EMI Eminence release, was made
as long ago as 1983 in St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn, London and engineered
by Mr Bear (also Classics
for Pleasure). Frankly, I was surprised how well it stood up in comparison
with the two more modern recordings. It can’t match the sonic splendour
of Davis 2 but I thought it had more immediacy and presence than Davis 1.
Interpretatively there’s not a great deal to choose between the two
Davis recordings though I think that such differences as there are incline
me towards Davis 2. Sir Andrew now moves the ‘Introduction’ forward
a fraction more than he did in 1995 and I really like the airy sound of the
Bergen woodwinds. The principal flute and bassoon make a fine impression in
the ‘Pastoral Dance’ which Davis brings to a warm climax. The
noble tune of ‘Saraband of the Sons of God’ is fine and stately.
The pacing was a bit broader in Davis 1 but I prefer the Bergen speed. The
full orchestra’s reprise of the tune is majestically played.
Satan arrives in Scene II and there’s little difference between the
two Davis recordings in this section; in both Satan is a malevolent presence.
The ‘Minuet of the Sons of Job and their Wives’ (Scene III) has
gentle formality. The music was taken a little faster in Davis 1 but the Bergen
speed works better. The entry of Satan (track 4, 2:52) is properly brazen
and the orchestra plays this passage with terrific power, aided and abetted
by the fine Chandos sound. I really admire the lovely quiet string playing
at the start of ‘Job’s Dream’ (Scene IV) and then the repose
is shattered by the arrival of Satan (track 5, 1:57) and the nightmare visions
to which he subjects Job. Davis takes this passage very quickly indeed and
the result is a frightening Pagan whirl. However, I remember when I first
heard Davis 1 many years ago that I thought this passage was a bit rushed
and I have the same feeling with Davis 2. Vernon Handley doesn’t take
this Allegro quite so briskly but, paradoxically, I find that he
injects even more bite and venom into the music as a result. It seems to me
also that the side drum is a little too prominent in Davis 2; the instrument
is better integrated in Davis 1. The Bergen Philharmonic treat us to some
very refined woodwind playing in the ‘Dance of the Three Messengers’
(Scene V) and the subsequent funeral cortege for the dead members of Job’s
family has a pronounced Ravelian feel to it.
So we come to the ‘Dance of Job’s Comforters’ (Scene VI).
The Bergen saxophonist is ideally wheedling in this passage and the jagged
orchestral contributions are thrust home very acutely. In Davis 1 the passage
is taken more quickly and as a result the BBCSO’s saxophonist can’t
be as insinuating. Tempted beyond endurance by these hypocrites, Job finally
snaps and curses God. At once VW unleashes an horrific vision of Satan seated
in triumph on the throne of God. Here an organ is added to the huge orchestral
forces. It’s pretty usual for the organ to be dubbed on to a recording
unless the sessions take place in a hall that has a suitable organ in situ.
In Davis 1 the organ of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge is used
and Sir Andrew, a former organ scholar of the college, does the honours himself.
The result is pretty potent but it pales beside the stupendous sound of the
Rieger organ in the Domkirken, Bergen. The same instrument made an impressive
contribution to Edward Gardner’s recording of Janáček’s Glagolitic
Mass (review)
but this is in a different league. I’ve heard almost all the recordings
of Job but never have I heard this climax delivered with such brazen,
reedy power. It’s a totally overwhelming, frightening moment, just as
the composer surely imagined it.
In a miraculous transformation VW moves seamlessly into ‘Eliahu’s
Dance of Youth and Beauty’ (Scene VII) with its ravishing violin solo.
The radiant violin line against the softest of accompaniments is balm to the
soul after the preceding turbulence. Here the solo is beautifully played by
the Bergen concertmaster, Alexander Kagan. Michael Davis (Davis 1) and David
Nolan (Handley) are no less poetic. This seraphic section harks back to The
Lark Ascending and the superbly defined Chandos sound allows us to hear
both the solo instrument and the beguiling accompaniment in an ideal fashion.
The luminous ‘Pavane of the Sons of the Morning’ is beautifully
done by Davis and the Norwegian orchestra.
Scene VIII brings Satan’s last brief roll of the dice but he is banished
and order is restored with the joyful ‘Galliard of Sons of the Morning’.
Following this the ‘Altar Dance’ is beneficent and tranquil in
the wake of Job’s tribulations. Finally, the ‘Epilogue’
is serene. Here the music of the ‘Introduction’ is revisited and,
as in that section, we find the new Davis performance has a little more flow
to it than was the case in 1995.
It’s interesting that Davis should have recreated the same coupling
of Job and the Ninth Symphony. VW wrote what was to be his last symphony
in 1956 and 1957. It’s not the easiest of his symphonies to grasp –
it took me a little while – but I think it’s under-appreciated
and still too infrequently performed. In that latter context I was delighted
to see just recently that Vladimir Jurowski has performed it with the LPO.
His name may not immediately spring to mind in connection with this symphony
but it seems that he made a very fine job of it (review).
It’s great to find conductors such as him ready to take on this enigmatic
score.
The Wessex of Thomas Hardy and specifically his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles
inspired VW in this symphony. He may well have been in his 80s when he wrote
it but I don’t believe there was any significant dimming of the creative
flames. Furthermore, that willingness to experiment with orchestration and
sonorities that had been such a feature of his two preceding symphonies was
again much in evidence. This time VW included in his orchestra a trio of saxophones
and a flugelhorn, giving these instruments important roles.
Indeed, the saxophone trio is deployed right at the start of the first movement,
their timbre used to add a mystical, legendary quality. Much of the first
movement is troubled and questing in nature. I hear distinct echoes of the
Sixth Symphony – also in E minor – and of Sinfonia Antartica.
After a powerful climax a lovely violin solo - Alexander Kagan again –
ushers in what annotator Stephen Connock rightly describes as “[a] period
of concentrated, brooding calm”. In fact, this mood sustains the music
through to the end of the movement. Here the flugelhorn adds a novel touch
to VW’s inspired textures. Davis handles these concluding minutes expertly
and though his earlier recording is good he manages this conclusion better
this time round.
The flugelhorn introduces the second movement with an extended unaccompanied
solo. The theme is taken from the early tone poem The Solent (1903)
(review).
The melody will be more familiar from Sea Symphony where VW reused
it to set the words “And on its limitless heaving breast, the Sea.”
Here in the Ninth lyrical material derived from this melody vies with a very
percussive, strongly rhythmical theme. The latter material is projected strongly
in this Bergen performance; in the earlier Davis recording it’s played
a bit more slowly and with greater weight but I prefer the Bergen way. The
movement ends with one last, wistful airing of the Solent theme.
Eloquently played by the Bergen orchestra, this concluding passage is more
magically rendered than in Davis’s earlier recording. I wonder if this
use of the theme to which VW had set words by Walt Whitman in Sea Symphony
represented one last doffing of his cap to the American poet whose verse had
been so important to him?
I’m reminded of the Sixth Symphony again in the Scherzo – and
also of the Fourth. The prominence of the saxophones in itself offers one
parallel with the Sixth where VW used just one sax – a tenor instrument
– in the scherzo. There’s a fugal episode part way through this
movement (from 2:15) which is begun by the saxophones, entering one after
another. Was this, I wonder, the first occasion that a trio of saxophones
had been used to initiate a fugue in a symphonic movement? There’s plenty
of power – and dynamic contrast, too – in this Bergen recording;
the performance has genuine bite and panache. The finale is a remarkable movement;
there’s so much incident and invention packed into it. Not only is there
plenty of evidence of the composer’s lyrical melodic gifts but also
his ability to write music of strange power is well to the fore. All this
is very well played by the Bergen Philharmonic and Sir Andrew demonstrates
a very sure touch in leading the performance. At 5:05 the violas intone an
archetypical VW melody. Thereafter the music gradually increases in power
and urgency until at 9:33 we reach what will be the composer’s last
symphonic climax; its rugged power does not disappoint. His powers of imagination
persist to the very end and the extraordinary closing bars in which loud chords
for the full orchestra are eerily punctuated by the three saxophones. It’s
one more stroke of vivid imagination from this endlessly inquisitive composer.
It’s time to sum up this disc. Sir Andrew’s new version of Job
is a fine achievement and in terms of recorded sound it has to be the finest
on the market. It’s also superbly played. There are a few points where
Vernon Handley still has the interpretative edge as far as I’m concerned
but his recording, though it sounds remarkably good for its age, can’t
compete with the marvellous SACD sound that Chandos provide for Davis. Ralph
Couzens, assisted by Gunnar Herleif Nilsen, has engineered the recording superbly.
On sonic grounds Davis 2 trumps Davis 1 and where there are points of difference
in the interpretation the newcomer is to be preferred every time. The same
comments apply to his two recordings of the Ninth Symphony.
So, here we have two very important Vaughan Williams scores – one of
them, Job, a masterpiece – in top class performances and magnificently
recorded. Expert notes by Stephen Connock set the seal on what must surely
be a mandatory purchase for all Vaughan Williams enthusiasts.
John
Quinn
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