Chandos are to be congratulated
for giving complete works in their new
Introduction series. This makes
a refresh change from the ubiquitous
‘favourite bits’ CDs, typified by the
latest Naxos "Very best of … "
double sets. An arrival means less without
the full journey which precedes it.
Ironically, the Chandos booklet opens
with an introduction by John Browning,
a Classic ‘chop, fillet and market’
FM presenter!
Turn to chandos.net
and the blurb for this CD "an introduction
to Ralph Vaughan Williams" mentions
Vernon Handley: "… these extraordinarily
satisfying performances will almost
certainly make you a convert to - Vaughan
Williams’ music - and a loyal new follower
of this distinguished conductor."
Handley conducts only the opening Overture
to the play ‘The Wasps’, in a performance
distinguished by a significant slowing
of pulse for the glowing string theme
in the middle section. Whatever this
theme signifies in Aristotle’s play,
I cannot shake the mental picture of
movie cameras panning across wide open
north western prairies with settlers’
caravans and buffalo. The performance
is decent enough, but Handley’s wasps
could buzz more angrily, as the Queens
Hall Orchestra strings did for Henry
Wood in 1936 (Dutton).
The remaining 68 minutes
of the CD are conducted by the late
Bryden Thomson, an underrated conductor.
Try Thomson’s Martinů
and Nielsen cycles, Bax 5 and superlative
Britten song cycles CD with Felicity
Lott and Anthony Rolfe Johnson
(Chandos). The Vaughan Williams symphony
cycle from which this London Symphony
is drawn comes from Thomson’s Chandos
cycle recorded in the late-1980s and
early 1990s. Thomson’s set still costs
over £50, compared with the superbudget
Haitink (EMI) and Handley (Classics
for Pleasure) digital sets, and must
also compete with Chandos’s second cycle
with Hickox, so this superbudget reissue
is welcome.
Thomson’s mighty London
risks creating a following. This
is a magnificent performance which impresses
more with each hearing. Tempi may be
fractionally too weighty in the Allegro
risoluto and Wood certainly better
captured the dance and fun, the smile
of a vital city. However Thomson’s Lento
is beautifully drawn with floating
strings and impressive legato brass
phrasing. The music breathes with ebb
and flow. Thomson’s even grip in the
crescendo is expertly controlled, timps
and brass rolling deep waves of sound,
lifting the centre of gravity as the
vision rises above ‘Bloomsbury Square
on a November Afternoon’. Did Thomson
ever conduct Parsifal? Boult
(EMI), Barbirolli (EMI 1957) and Wood
are by comparison underwhelming.
The dynamic 1980s Chandos
engineering opens spectacularly here
with a wide, bass-rich airiness that
eluded their recording of the 1912 version
with Hickox and the London Symphony
twenty years later. It’s a relief to
hear the LSO in this full church acoustic
after listening to their slightly boxy
concrete bunker Barbican recordings
for LSO Live.
Thomson’s Scherzo
is controversial. Hickox’s swifter
tempi certainly flow more naturally.
Yet Thomson’s grading and control of
instrumental colour impress, with revealed
details imparting their own energy.
A dark glittering undercurrent mirrors
the Giulini/Vienna Philharmonic’s handling
of the second movement of their Bruckner
9. Here is London’s underbelly.
Following the magnificent
apex to the second movement, Thomson’s
mastery of the Andante con moto -
Allegro – Epilogue is almost no
surprise. His opening chords cry out
with dramatic rubati and are also distinguished
by the dark layering of the LSO sonority:
horns, trombones, strings all transparent
and rich. I was then taken aback by
the glorious LSO brass at 3:04, singing
out more powerfully than expected. Thomson’s
resulting march to the culmination is
serious, the clear trajectory powerful
and determined. The thunderous fff
timpani and bass drum which underpin
the crescendo would be louder in performance
but still spreads across the Chandos
soundscape spectacularly enough.
The Epilogue begins
swiftly, especially the oscillating
woodwind at 9:04. Surely the double
basses’ melody which underneath this
is related to Holst’s Venus, Bringer
of Peace? However Thomson appropriately
settles the pulse leading to the mystery
of the final bars. Here I thought of
James Lovelock’s prophetic book The
Revenge of Gaia. Vaughan Williams’
watery vision of London’s end is much
closer than we expect as humankind responds
to the threat of catastrophic climate
change by putting the carbon energy
pedal to the metal.
Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'
and Lark Ascending are too
chocolate box for me. An introduction
to Vaughan Williams at the shallow end
of the pool. After these the loud discord
which kick-starts the London’s Allegro
risoluto is a welcome relief. Yet
Thomson’s Lark is notable for
blessedly unsentimental tempi and natural
setting of soloist Michael Davis, who
thereby melds into the orchestral tapestry
when required and floats ravishing pianissimos.
David Harbin
Michael Davis (violin) 
