BARGAIN OF THE MONTH
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
The Collector’s Edition
The Masterpieces – The Greatest Artists
Symphonies, concertos, orchestral music, choral music, songs, folk songs, chamber
music, five operas
Various artists
rec. London,. Liverpool, Manchester, 1965-1995. ADD/DDD
Full contents list at end of review
EMI CLASSICS 2066362 [30 CDs: 34 hrs]
Richard Abram is the guiding mind behind this ambitious and unique Vaughan Williams
collection. He was also behind the EMI Elgar Collector’s Edition. Of all the
recording labels EMI Classics offered the greatest breadth and depth of VW catalogue
from which to choose. They have three cycles of the symphonies (Boult, Handley
and Haitink) and they carry at least two different versions of many of the major
choral works.
The Edition is remarkable for its generosity and economy rather than for its
lavish presentation. The thirty discs reside each in its own plain envelope
with a polythene panel on one face allowing easy inspection of the disc number
and a telegraphed synopsis of the contents is printed on the non-playing surface
of each disc. The thirty envelopes sit alongside a 40 page booklet in a slip-case
inner-sleeve which slots into a thick card outer sheath. This product is stripped
down to barest essentials. The booklet offers no essay nor any introduction
to each work nor are the sung words included. This is therefore not for the
collector who wants the ‘compleat’ package. It will however suit the nervous
explorer, the adventurous bargain hunter and those on a tight budget – few of
us are on anything else.
It’s an astonishing package. We hear all nine symphonies in the recordings made
in Liverpool by Vernon Handley during the 1980s and 1990s. His very perceptive
way with symphonies dominates the box and its accomplishments are only diluted
by the slightly opaque recording. The Handley set has been available in boxed
set form before now and can be had individually on the CFP issues all of which
have been reviewed here (see below).
A Sea Symphony has a well drilled choir - Ian Tracey's hand at work here,
I suspect. Words are enunciated with a razor-sharp coordinated focus. Try that
tour de force The scherzo - The Waves. It’s just as well they
are so good as none of the words are included in the booklet. There’s an invigorating
nice snap to the playing: listen to the woodwind playing in Today a rude
brief recitative. It's a fine performance which engaged me far more than
usual and brought out the Stanfordian influences - Songs of the Sea.
Surprising things appear such as the rocking ostinato at start of A pennant
universal - so typical of a work lying five years in the future, Bax's Tintagel.
There are a wonderful 15 tracking entry points on this CD - a superb version
from which to study the score.
The first time I heard A London Symphony live was in one of a pair of
concerts given by Handley and the RLPO in celebration of his seventieth birthday.
It was given in Philharmonic Hall. The other work was I think Bax's Violin Concerto
with Chantal Juillet -such a pity she was never offered the opportunity to record
the Concerto. Handley however made the Symphony glow. His is a vivid reading
with much poetry alongside the street noises of the great city. Rather like
Peter Ackroyd’s magnificent three part documentary about London (2004) this
captures in detail - that is both picaresque and mystical - one person's city
vista. The same sharply etched rhythms which distinguish The waves in
A Sea Symphony also can be heard here in a work dedicated to that other
brilliant Stanford pupil the doomed George Butterworth who had only a couple
of years to live before a sniper's bullet cut his life short in France. From
many years later comes the chimingly inventive Eighth Symphony - it always strikes
me as a symphony of the graces - Botticellian in its serene curvature. There
are the a Vanity Fair grotesqueries of the second movement and for me a sense
of the Commedia dell’Arte. Is that a touch of Shostakovich in the sensational
woodwind writing? To what extent, I wonder, was Britten influenced by this work
in his ballet Prince of the Pagodas. I am not letting go of my allegiance
to the analogue Barbirolli version on a magnificent Dutton double but this is
a super fine performance. Wonderful stuff and things work similarly well for
the other symphonies.
Both the other EMI RVW symphony cycles can still be purchased should
you wish: Boult (mostly 1960-70) – earlier than Handley - and Haitink (1990s).
The first seven discs are given over to Handley’s Vaughan Williams. From that
point we start to encounter, over discs 8 and 9, parts of the Boult RVW project
including Job and the Piano Concerto in its two piano version. EMI have
already given us the solo piano with orchestra edition as played by Piers Lane.
Boult is also at the helm for some of the other orchestral pieces which in vinyl
days served as fillers on the Boult symphony LPs. Disc 10 is quite miscellaneous
– in a good way! - mixing the roseate romanticism of Silvestri’s vivid Tallis
Fantasia with the brass band version of the Folksong Suite, Groves’
bereft but stirring Dawn Patrol being, alongside Hickox’s 49th
Parallel on CD 11, one of the very few direct representatives of the RVW
film music. Anent Boult’s rather reserved Concerto Grosso it’s a pity
Abram did not opt for Del Mar’s 1960s version which really sprang vividly to
life. Then there’s Larry Adler’s fantastic harmonica Romance where the
composer is in experimental form with the solo instrument wailing and ululating.
It is almost as if Adler and RVW were serenading Scott's Antarctic penguins.
It is an engaging piece; cold but full of welcoming strangeness. The recording
now shows its age a little. As for Catelinet’s Tuba Concerto this is rather
‘breathy-lippy’ as I put it when first reviewing this recording. It is good
but not to be preferred over the Previn’s 1960s version with the LSO’s tuba
principal John Fletcher (RCA/BMG – see
review). Hickox takes over for CD 11 with the notable tracks being the orchestra-only
version of the Serenade to Music, the ballet Old King Cole complete
with choir and the Five Mystical Songs taken by Stephen Roberts who is
good but not as good as the older and exultant EMI Mystical Songs by
Shirley-Quirk. Gordon Jacob arranged Vaughan Williams’ Variations for Brass
Band for orchestra. You can hear this on CD 12 alongside Bradley Creswick’s
Concerto Accademico. The Concerto was for many years known only through
James Buswell IV’s recording with Previn on RCA-BMG (see
review). Buswell re-emerged about a decade ago with the two Piston Violin
Concertos on Naxos (see
review). Not all packages can be perfectly neat – thus CD 12 ends with the
Britten Quartet’s fine early 1990s recording of Vaughan Williams’ String Quartet
No. 1. CD 13 is neat with four mature major chamber works all from the
hands of the members of the Music Group of London.
CD 14 onwards returns us to a trio of conductors whose batons swept over the
choral works renaissance in the 1960s and early 1970s. They straddle centenary
year in 1972: Boult, Meredith Davies and Willcocks. RVW was even celebrated
that year with a Post Office stamp. So many of these recordings are world premieres.
While Dona Nobis Pacem had been pipped at the post by Abravanel's fine
version (Vanguard) and Toward the Unknown Region by Sargent (EMI) recordings
of the Fantasia on the Old 104th, the Magnificat and many of the others were
firsts on commercial disc. I was raised on the Westbrook version of An Oxford
Elegy. All lovers of the English language should flock to that work and
that recording though the Nimbus version from Jack May is pretty good too. Such
a potent combination - Westbrook's voice and the nostalgic sweetness of Vaughan
Williams. Flos Campi is one of RVW’s most sheerly beautiful, even sensuous,
pieces. I love this version but Frederick Riddle version once on RCA and now
on Chandos is also good. It used to be on an RCA LP with the suite for viola
and orchestra. Toward the Unknown Region is early RVW and establishes
his prolonged affair with the poetry of Walt Whitman; as close and sustained
as Finzi's with Hardy’s poetry. The sound securely distinguishes the various
sumptuously rounded strands of serenity and ecstasy. Boult's Dona has
the white-toned Sheila Armstrong, John Carol Case and the London Philharmonic
Choir. They put British reserve aside for the savagery of "Beat! Beat!
Drums …" achieving an effect not that far removed from the chaotic rammy
of Bliss’s The City Arming from Morning Heroes (Royal Liverpool
Phil Choir). This is a much more effective image of apocalyptic violence than
Franz Schmidt's contemporary Book of the Seven Seals and is more emotionally
expressive than Eugene Goossens’ The Apocalypse. John Carol Case, who
in five years, was to find his vibrato difficult to subdue (Lyrita Recorded
Edition in Finzi Let us Garlands Bring) is here controlled and rounded
in tone. William Christensen on the Abravanel recording (Vanguard) has more
humanity and emotional baggage. The singing of the words "… the hands of
the sisters: death and night" is very touching indeed. Boult handles the
Dirge for Two Veterans with implacable funereal nobility and it remains
intriguing to compare his friend Holst’s setting of the same text once recorded
by the Baccholian Singers. The Fantasia on the Old 104th
has a crashingly rebellious solo piano part despatched with darkling concentration
by Peter Katin who, in a handful of years time, was to record Finzi's similarly
unrepentantly gawky Grand Fantasia and Toccata for Lyrita. I recall the
original EMI LP which had Boult's version of the RVW Ninth Symphony as the coupling.
The Fantasia is an oddball work yet full of interest. A late piece echoing with
strange sonorities it somehow brackets itself in the company of Beethoven’s
Choral Fantasia. The Magnificat introduces Meredith Davies as conductor.
Here the linkages are with the Sinfonia Antartica notably in the succulently
rounded Gallic flute playing of Christopher Hyde-Smith. The Ambrosian Singers
remind us of the choral writing in An Oxford Elegy and especially in
Flos Campi. The late 1960s saw an eruption of recording activity as centenary
year hove in sight. Five Tudor Portraits at last secured its recording
premiere. It is difficult to imagine it being done any better although I concede
that Elizabeth Bainbridge is far too matronly and tends to squall. John Carol
Case is in beefily strong voice. Yet he is delectable in the sweetly light ballad
My Pretty Bess. Listen to his meshing with the chorus in the last two
minutes of the ballad. It is still something of a shock to encounter the direct
Orff quotation in the Burlesca. However the fulcrum of the work is the
Romanza (a favourite RVW term) Jane Scroop - Her Lament for Philip
Sparrow. This is sensuous, touching, exotic - a cortège of symphonic gravity.
There is some slight choral scrappiness in the faster tongue-twisting passages
but exuberance exonerates and exalts all. The Benedicite makes a joyfully euphoric
impression and Heather Harper is wondrously clear and splendidly ripe of tone.
The Dives and Lazarus Variants are a noble work extremely aptly turned
by the Jacques Orchestra. John Barrow contributes his sweetly cavernous baritone
to the Christmas Carol Fantasia. The hit of the work is certainly On
Christmas Night (third movement). A more ambitious and probing seasonal
work is the late Hodie termed A Christmas Cantata. This is another
anthology work. The recorded balance is miraculously right-feeling in the pipe
organ accompanied choral narration - Now the birth of Jesus Christ. This
is a work that should be done far more often as should that other Christmas
cantata: Cyril Rootham's Milton-based Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
– still waiting impatiently in the wings for its first recording. The highlights
of Hodie are Janet Baker's It was the winter wild (Milton), John
Shirley-Quirk's baritone in the setting of Hardy's Oxen, kin with the
Five Mystical Songs, the Herbert setting of Pastoral (again Shirley-Quirk)
and Bright Portals of the Sky (directly referenced to the film music
for ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ and indeed to Grace Williams' scena Fairest
of Stars). It is regally exhilarating in Milton's Ring Out ye crystal
spheres. The clamour of bells, large and small prepares any audience to
go out glowing into the snowy night and home.
The Partita is not reckoned as prime RVW - it tends to coldness - but
the darting bustle of the scherzo ostinato is likeable in a disconcertingly
Britten-like way. The Concerto Grosso is a much more emotional piece
where humanity smiles warmly. This is affecting and instantly accessible but
it is not the equal of the electrically rapturous Del Mar Bournemouth recording
(EMI). Boult keeps a lid on the emotionalism which the earlier recording happily
sheds to loveable and exciting effect. Sargent's Tallis Fantasia is now
approaching 65 years old. However it sounds fine and while it lacks Barbirolli's
rapt intensity and ecstatic concentration it is no mean performance … if slightly
hurried. The Romance gives us Larry Adler in experimental form, his harmonica
wailing and ululating. It is almost as if he was serenading Scott's Antarctic
penguins. It is an engaging fantasy of a piece - perhaps rather cold but full
of strangeness. The recording now shows its age. Another Romance - this
time for violin and orchestra - ends the CD.
There are several CDs of English song some with orchestra some with piano alone.
Robert Tear (the head-line British tenor for many years) is dark-toned and faintly
nasal. The orchestral contribution is frankly superb but my preference would
be for the lighter-hued voice of Gerald English (Unicorn nla but you may be
able to track it down). In any event Tear gives lovely performances and Bredon
Hill with its serene shimmer has not been done better. The Songs of Travel
are rooted back into Parry. The orchestrations (three) are by RVW and the
rest by Roy Douglas. Thomas Allen shows a very clean pair of heels to Robert
Tear managing a lovely honeyed lightness. "I have trod the upward and the
downward slope" neatly echoes the decay of the tramping theme of "The
Vagabond" giving a rounded sense to the cycle. Anthony Rolfe Johnson and
David Willison; the latter best known as Benjamin Luxon's accompanist, address
the songs with piano. Here the tenor is as dark-tinged as Tear, but so much
sweeter, less acidulous, keyed more effectively into the honey and eschewing
the vinegar.
The RVW Mass is cleanly and coldly sung as befits its Medievalist origins.
These are presented with a host of other devotional choral pieces and hymns
including All People that on Earth Do Dwell, Te Deum in G, Three
Preludes on Welsh Hymn tunes, O Clap Your Hands and O Taste and
See. The secular songs including Four Hymns, Merciless Beauty,
Two songs of Fredegond Shove, Ten Blake Songs and Wenlock Edge
are taken by Ian Partridge (tenor) and the Music Group of London. Songs
and folksongs with piano and choral folksong arrangements are not neglected.
The various artists include the London Madrigal Singers/Christopher Bishop and
the Baccholian Singers of London. There are also some solo folksong arrangements
and the choral-melodramatic A Song of Thanksgiving – the latter with
Robert Speaight (orator) and the LPO/Adrian Boult.
The operas are well represented with the chilly, austere and desolate Riders
to the Sea from Norma Burrowes; Margaret Price; Helen Watts; Benjamin Luxon
and Pauline Stevens with the Ambrosian Singers and the Orchestra Nova of London/Meredith
Davies. This is placed with Epithalamion. Three other operas take up
the last six discs in the set. Hugh the Drover - a ballad opera - with
Robert Tear; Sheila Armstrong; Michael Rippon; Robert Lloyd and the Choristers
of St Paul's Cathedral; RPO/Charles Groves (CD 25-26), that delightful masterpiece
Sir John in Love with Felicity Palmer; Robert Tear; Robert Lloyd; Helen
Watts and the New Philharmonia/Meredith Davies (CD 27-28) and finally his operatic
testament: Pilgrim’s Progress with Ian Partridge; John Shirley-Quirk;
Jean Temperley; John Noble; LPChoir and LPO/Adrian Boult (CD 29-30). It even
includes the rehearsal sequence with which it first appeared on LP.
There is a remarkable range of music here but what is ‘missing’? You will not
hear the original version of the London Symphony (CHAN 9902 – see
review), nor the entertaining opera - parallel to Holst’s Perfect Fool
- The Poisoned Kiss (see
review). You will not hear the big pastoral work - Folk Songs of the
Four Seasons - written for the WI in the 1950s and time after time disdained
by promoters and labels. It awaited a first recording for many years until rescued
by the valuable Albion label. You will look in vain for the Fantasia on Sussex
Folk Tunes for cello and orchestra unless you track down the Lloyd Webber
birthday double on RCA-BMG (see
review). You would have to go to Lyrita for The Sons of Light (see
review) and Chandos for the Choral Hymns in Time of War (CHAN 9984
– see
review). You will need Hyperion if you want the early chamber music (see
review) and ASV to catch the otherworldly Three Vocalises for soprano
and clarinet – akin to Antartica – on ASV Platinum, PLT8520 (see
review); originally ASV CD DCA 891 (Emma Johnson; Judith Howarth). The other
Housman song-cycle, the melancholically beautiful Along the Field (voice
and solo violin) can be heard on Gordon Pullin’s own label where Pullin is accompanied
by Beth Spendlove (see
review) and on Decca with Thomas Woodman and Nancy Bean (see
review). The complete Wasps music is on the Hallé’s own label (see
review). Willow Wood is coupled with another version of The Sons
of Light on Naxos (see
review). The very brief Flourish for Glorious John – all of 1:35
– was, after issue on an individual CD (09026 61196 2), only available as part
of Leonard Slatkin’s RCA-BMG Red Seal cycle of the Symphonies (issued 1993,
now deleted). For a splendid selection and superbly executed and recorded performances
of the film music go to the three volumes on Chandos (I,
II,
III
and collected
edition box). Stephen Hogger has done a great deal of work to reconstruct
much of the film music and we should not forget his realisation of the Second
Norfolk Rhapsody on Chandos CHAN 10001 (see
review). The opera scene The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains can
be heard in isolation on the new Hyperion RVW box (see
review) but it forms an episode (identical?) in the ‘Morality’ Pilgrim’s
Progress on CDs 29-30. Christopher Palmer’s version of the incidental music
for a 1942 radio adaptation of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ (The Pilgrim’s Progress
— A Bunyan Sequence) can be also had on the Hyperion set (see
review). The ‘Whitman Nocturne’: ‘Whispers of Heavenly Death’ is on another
Hickox Chandos disc (CHAN 10103). While RVW’s concert cantata drawing on Sir
John in Love is part of the set you can only track down Maurice Jacobson’s 40
minute Cotswold Romance - similar piece of composer-authorised pragmatism for
Hugh The Drover on Chandos CHAN 9646 (see
review). There it shares a disc with the equally rare incidental music for
the Maeterlinck play The Death of Tintagiles. The major Christmas sequence,
The First Nowell is also on Chandos – CHAN 10385 (see
review).
The discs come in at £1.30 a piece when you buy the 30 CD set.. Remember that
in 1971 collectors were paying £2-£2.40 per premium LP. The EMI Boult symphonies
LPs were later packaged in one large box (SLS822) and the choral works in another
big box (SLS5082). Amazon prices the 30 disc set at about £35 including p&p.
There is nothing like this anywhere whether at this or any price and there’s
hardly a single dud in the collection. Any serious explorer who has not amassed
many of these works already should get this and begin a journey of discovery.
The only down side is the lack of documentation and texts but a reasonably tenacious
explorer with access to the internet and library should be able to repair that
omission.
Rob Barnett
There is nothing like this anywhere and hardly a single dud in the collection.
Any serious explorer who has not amassed many of these works already should
get this and begin a journey of discovery.
Detailed contents list
CD 1
A Sea Symphony - Joan Rodgers; William Shimell; RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 2
London Symphony & Symphony No. 8 – RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 3
Pastoral Symphony and Symphony No. 4 Alison Barlow; RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 4
Oboe Concerto & Symphony No. 5 - Jonathan Small; RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 5
Symphonies Nos. 6 & 9 – RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 6
Serenade to Music (choral), Partita for Double String Orchestra, Sinfonia Antartica
– RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 7
The Wasps Suite, Prelude & Fugue in C minor, Piano Concerto in C - Piers
Lane (piano); LPO/Vernon Handley; RLPO/Vernon Handley
CD 8
Piano Concerto in C for two pianos, Job - Vitya Vronsky, Victor Babin (pianos);
LPO and LSO/Adrian Boult
CD 9
Serenade to Music (16 soloists), English Folk Songs Suite (orch), Norfolk Rhapsody
No. 1, The Lark Ascending, Greensleeves Fantasia, In the Fen Country - Hugh
Bean (violin); LSO/Adrian Boult; New Philharmonia Orchestra/Adrian Boult
CD 10
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, English Folk Songs Suite (band), Sea Songs
march (band), Dawn patrol, Concerto grosso, Tuba Concerto, Harmonica Romance
- Various Artists
CD 11
Serenade to Music (orchestral only version), Poisoned Kiss overture, Old King
Cole - ballet, Five Mystical Songs, Sea Songs march (orchestral), Running Set,
49th Parallel Prelude; Northern Sinfonia of England/Richard Hickox
CD 12
Variations for Brass Band (orch Gordon Jacob), Concerto accademico for violin
and orchestra in D minor, String Quartet No. 1, Three preludes (II; III), Two
Hymn Tune Preludes - Bournemouth SO/Richard Hickox; Northern Sinfonia of England/Richard
Hickox; Britten Quartet
CD 13
Violin Sonata in A minor, String Quartet No. 2, Phantasy Quintet, Six Studies
in English Folk Song (cello) - Music Group of London
CD 14
Toward the Unknown Region, Dona nobis pacem, Magnificat etc - LPO / Adrian Boult
CD 15
An Oxford Elegy, Flos campi, Whitsunday Hymn, Sancta Civitas - KCC / LSO / David
Willcocks
CD 16
Five Tudor Portraits, Benedicite, Five variants of 'Dives and Lazarus - John
Carol Case / Bach Choir / New Phil Orch / LSO / David Willcocks
CD 17
Hodie, Fantasia on Christmas Carols (w/strings & organ) - Janet Baker /
Bach Choir / LSO / David Willcocks
CD 18
Fantasia on Christmas Carols (w/orch), In Windsor Forest, Songs of travel, On
Wenlock Edge - Various Artists
CD 19
Mass in G minor, All People that on Earth Do Dwell, Te Deum in G, Three Preludes
on Welsh Hymn tunes, other sacred choral - KCC / David Willcocks
CD 20
Four Hymns, Merciless Beauty, Ten Blake Songs, Wenlock Edge - Ian Partridge
/ Music Group of London
CD 21
The House of Life, Songs of Travel (piano) - Anthony Rolfe Johnson / David Willison
CD 22
Songs with piano, choral folksong arrangements - Various Artists
CD 23
Solo folksong arrangements, A Song of Thanksgiving - LPO / Adrian Boult
CD 24
Epithalamion, Riders to the Sea - LPO / David Willcocks / Orchestra Nova of
London / Meredith Davies
CD 25 & CD 26
Hugh the Drover - Robert Tear / Sheila Armstrong / Michael Rippon / Robert Lloyd
/ Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral / RPO / Charles Groves
CD 27 & CD 28
Sir John in Love - Felicity Palmer / Robert Tear / Robert Lloyd / Helen Watts
/ New Phil Orch / Meredith Davies
CD 29 & CD 30
Pilgrim's Progress & rehearsal sequence - Ian Partridge / John Shirley-Quirk
/ Jean Temperley / John Noble / LPC / LPO / Adrian Boult
-----------------
Overview list
Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Joan Rodgers; William Shimell; Alison Barlow; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon
Handley
Oboe Concerto in A minor
Jonathan Small; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
Serenade to Music (choral version)
Partita for double string orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite
Prelude and Fugue in C minor
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon
Handley
Piano Concerto in C major
Piers Lane; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon
Handley
Piano Concerto in C for two pianos
Vitya Vronsky; Victor Babin; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult
Serenade to Music
English Folk Song Suite (orchestral version)
Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
The Lark Ascending
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
London Symphony Orchestra; New Philharmonia Orchestra/Adrian Boult
English Folk Song Suite (band version)
Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra
Tuba Concerto in F minor
Serenade to Music (orchestral)
Old King Cole
Five Mystical Songs
Sea Songs
Northern Sinfonia of England/Richard Hickox
Variations for Brass Band (orchestral)
Violin Concerto in D minor 'Concerto Accademico'
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Northern Sinfonia of England/Richard Hickox
String Quartet No. 1 in G minor
Britten Quartet
Violin Sonata in A minor
String Quartet No. 2 in A minor
Music Group of London
Toward the Unknown Region
Dona Nobis Pacem
Magnificat
A Song of Thanksgiving
Riders to the Sea
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult
An Oxford Elegy
Flos Campi
Whitsunday Hymn
Sancta Civitas
Kings College Cambridge & London Symphony Orchestra/David Willcocks
Five Tudor Portraits
Benedicite
Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus'
Bach Choir, New Philharmonia Orch & LSO/David Willcocks
Hodie (A Christmas Cantata) (w/strings & organ)
Janet Baker
Bach Choir
LSO/David Willcocks
Fantasia on Christmas Carols (w/orch)
In Windsor Forest
Songs of Travel
On Wenlock Edge
Mass in G minor
Te Deum in G
All people that on earth do dwell
Household Music
Kings College Cambridge/David Willcocks
Four Hymns
Merciless Beauty
Ten Blake Songs
On Wenlock Edge
Ian Partridge; Music Group of London
House of Life
Songs of Travel
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor); David Willison (piano)
Epithalamion
London Philharmonic Orchestra/David Willcocks
Riders to the Sea
Orchestra Nova of London/Meredith Davies
Hugh the Drover
Robert Tear; Sheila Armstrong; Michael Rippon & Robert Lloyd; Choristers
of St Paul's Cathedral & RPO/Charles Groves
Sir John in Love
Felicity Palmer; Robert Tear; Robert Lloyd & Helen Watts; New Philharmonia
Orchestra/Meredith Davies
The Pilgrim's Progress (complete) & rehearsal sequence
Ian Partridge; John Shirley-Quirk; Jean Temperley & John Noble; LPC; LPO/Adrian
Boult
RVW Reviews on MusicWeb International – a selection
1 http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2002/July02/Sea_Handley.htm
4 3 http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/aug02/Vaughan_Williams_Symphonies34.htm
Antartica Serenade Partita http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2002/July02/RVW_antartica.htm
6 9 http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2002/July02/RVW69_handley.htm
2 8 http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/RVW28.htm
5 http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/RVW5.htm
Handley Wasps http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Sept02/Lark_Cuckoo.htm
Tuba concerto Catelinet http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Feb03/rvw_barbirolli.htm
Handley’s Job http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/July02/job.htm
Toward the Unknown Region (1), Dona nobis pacem (2), Fantasia (quasi variazione)
on the Old 104th Psalm Tune (3), Magnificat (4), Partita
(5), Concerto Grosso (6), Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis (7), Romance
in D flat (8), The Lark Ascending (9) http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Feb02/RVW_EMI_collection.htm
Sir John in Love http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Jun03/RVW_SirJohninLove_EMI.htm
The Poisoned Kiss http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/apr04/poisoned_kiss.htm
RVW etc choral box http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Feb03/rvwbox2.htm