Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The New Collector’s Edition
No texts or libretti
WARNER 9029624537 [30 CDs: 34 hrs]
In the early 2000s EMI brought out a 9-CD Choral, Vocal and Orchestral box that included a third of the Vaughan Williams items that were later to form part of their 30-CD ‘Collector’s Edition’, masterminded by Richard Abram. Now, in time for the composer’s 150th birthday celebrations, comes Warner’s ‘The New Collector’s Edition’, also in a 30-CD box. If you have that earlier box still on your shelves, you’d be entitled to know what Warner, as it now is, has come up with. What makes this the ‘New’ collector’s edition, as distinct from the common or garden ‘Collector’s’ edition? The answer is not very much.
The earlier set was comprehensively and handsomely reviewed by Rob Barnett (review) who gave links to previous reviews of the material in the box, none of which was new, and all of which was part of the EMI-VW recorded legacy. I have listened to the Handley symphonic cycle in full in this incarnation as it’s been years since I last heard it, but I have sampled much of the remainder, dipping into and out of each disc to refresh my memory of recordings I’ve known for a long time and also to listen to those things that I haven’t heard before – which includes the smaller items that have been included in this set that weren’t in the previous one; there are not too many of those, admittedly.
So, think of this review as a signpost to long-established performances and to the fact that Warner is (in effect) reissuing that earlier box. You will also find my reviews of CDs 8 and 9 – Piano Concerto (in the two piano version) and Job, Serenade to Music, The Lark Ascending as well as The Pilgrim’s Progress etc- conducted by Boult (review).
So what additions are there to the old Collector’s edition? On CD13 in the new box there’s the Fantasia on
‘Greensleeves’ and the Galop from the Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra, heard here in Watson Forbes’ arrangements and played by Herbert Downes, Osian Ellis and Gerald Moore. On CD16 I’m not aware that the choral version of Linden Lea or Wither’s Rocking Hymn were present on that older box, one sung by the Choir of the New College Oxford and the other by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge; seven minutes in all. On CD22 the older box seems to contain Joy, Shipmate, Joy! and A Clear Midnight though they’re not in the new edition. It’s not always easy to make a direct comparison between the two boxes so my apologies if I have omitted anything.
Everything has pretty much all been released before, sometimes multiply, and effectively in toto over a decade ago. It seems ridiculous to rehash comment. And what more could Warner do, given it has to select from its stable of labels? It has invited Stephen Johnson to write a booklet note. Johnson is a fine writer but he has been given two pages to sum up RVW’s achievement and a man can only do so much in that very limited space. Otherwise, the notes are also in French and German, the remainder taken up with an alphabetical checklist of works with a direction to the relevant CD that contains the music. The 40-page booklet of the older edition has therefore shrunk to 14, half of which is taken up by the works. There are no discographical details other than the original year of production and any subsequent remastering, details that are contained at the bottom of the individual wallets. Performers are, of course, all noted on the back of the wallets.
As for those discs they’re housed in attractive wallet covers with paintings from artists of the period – Charles Corder, Benjamin Williams Leader, Hughes Stanton, and John Everett Millais amongst them. But you’re not going to buy this set for the wallet art, are you?
There have been no new remasterings so far as I’m aware.
I’d forgotten how effectively Handley paced the symphonies or how successful a symphonic set this was. He had all the attributes of his mentor and guide, Boult, but had the Liverpool orchestra playing at the top of its form – better than Boult and his LPO in his mono cycle, in fact – and heard in splendid sound. The sound is something that always set this cycle apart when it was first issued, pro and occasionally contra – the singers being too distant in the Sea Symphony for example (they aren’t too distant in this release, though one singer is far better than the other). For me the Fifth is a slight disappointment, a touch too tight-lipped. I’ll always need Previn.
You get most VW you will want, even Sir John in Love, a negligible work with a great cast (ask yourself, when did you last listen to it all the way through?). Hugh the Drover is a much better work and Charles Groves conducts it marvellously. About The Pilgrim’s Progress I have always been something of an agnostic, but I concede its spiritual power and its command. EMI went a bit gung-ho with the wind machine in Riders to the Sea – it’s a depressing enough narrative without underlining nature’s implacable and relentless force in this way. Meredith Davies directs incisively, though, and there’s fine singing, especially by Helen Watts.
If you want three versions of the Serenade to Music, here they are – the full choral one, the one for 16 vocal soloists and the orchestral version (this last seems to defeat the point). There is only one version of the Tallis Fantasia but thankfully it’s Silvestri’s – gloriously red-bloodied. You’ll have Barbirolli’s anyway. Dives and Lazarus is in the safe, sympathetic hands of David Willcocks, and it’s hardly Warner’s fault that they don’t have access to Marriner’s Decca recording. Flos Campi (Aronowitz/Willcocks) was selected in preference to Handley’s recording with Christopher Balmer, which was part of his symphonic recordings, as it gave renewed airing to that series of recordings Willcocks directed, which included An Oxford Elegy (with the wonderful John Westbrook as speaker) the Mass in G (a must-have account), Hodie and Sancta Civitas.
The chamber music is spearheaded by the venerable but long-lasting virtues of The Music Group of London, who perform the Second Quartet; the First is played by the Britten Quartet. On Wenlock Edge is represented by two versions. Firstly, there is Ian Patridge and The Music Group of London, and second, in the orchestral version, there’s Robert Tear with Rattle and the City of Birmingham. Most listeners would much prefer Partridge, a master of the idiom, as they would Rolfe-Johnson and Willison in Songs of Travel over Thomas Allen – fine as he is – in the orchestral version, again with Rattle. But at least this way you get both. If you’ve never heard Heddle Nash’s Linden Lea you might be happy with Bostridge’s recording here but I have and I’m not.
Is this the best way for Warner to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth? Or is it better to invest time, labour and money in presenting unusual, overlooked repertoire, such as, for example, Albion has done in releasing, for the first time, the complete folk songs and other material? Which makes a greater claim on your wallet? The canonic recordings or the novelties? The bulk or the niche? Is the answer to keep reissuing the same old items?
When all’s said and done this is a necessary reissue, I suppose, if you want a ‘as much as you can eat’ VW buffet solution and haven’t already got the previous box or possibly the much earlier 9-CD box. However, for its cost cutting booklet and its lack of imagination in exploring beyond its initial remit – and for the ambiguity of its title - I’m going to give it something of a grudging, guarded welcome.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous reviews
Symphony No 1 ‘A Sea Symphony’ review
Symphony No 2 ‘A London Symphony’ review
Symphony No 3 ‘A Pastoral Symphony’ review
Symphony No 4 review
Symphony No 5 review
Symphony No 6 review
Symphony No 7 ‘Sinfonia antartica’ review
Symphony No 8 review
Symphony No 9 review
Oboe Concerto review
Partita for double string orchestra review
Serenade to Music (choral version) review
Serenade to Music (orchestral version) review
The Poisoned Kiss - Overture review
Old King Cole – A Ballet for Orchestra review
Five Mystical Songs review
Prelude on an Old Carol Tune review
The Running Set review
Prelude: 49th Parallel review
Sea Songs – March review
Two Hymn-Tune Preludes review
Concerto accademico in D minor review
Three Preludes founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes orch Arnold Foster review
Contents
CD1
Symphony No 1 ‘A Sea Symphony’
Joan Rodgers (Soprano), William Shimmell (baritone)
CD2
Symphony No 2 ‘A London Symphony’
Symphony No 8 in D minor
CD3
Symphony No 3 ‘A Pastoral Symphony’
Symphony No 4 in F minor
Alison Barlow (soprano)
CD4
Oboe Concerto in A minor
Jonathan Small (oboe)
Symphony No 5 in D major
CD5
Symphony No 6 in E minor
Symphony No 9 in E minor
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
CD6
Serenade To Music (Choral version)
Partita for double string orchestra
Symphony No 7 ‘Sinfonia antartica’
Alison Hargan (soprano): Ian Tracey (organ)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir/Vernon Handley
CD7
The Wasps – Aristophanic Suite
Prelude and Fugue in C minor
Piano Concerto in C major
David Bell (organ): Piers Lane (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Concerto)
Vernon Handley
CD8
Piano Concerto in C major arr two pianos
Job: A Masque for Dancing
Vitya Vronsky and Victor Babin (pianos)
London Philharmonic Orchestra (Concerto)
London Symphony Orchestra (Job)
Adrian Boult
CD9
Serenade to Music
English Folk Songs – Suite
Norfolk Rhapsody No 1
Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’
In the Fen Country
The Lark Ascending
Norma Burrowes (soprano), Sheila Armstrong (soprano), Marie Hayward (soprano), Susan Longfield (soprano), Alfreda Hodgson (contralto), Shirley Minty (contralto), Meriel Dickinson (contralto), Gloria Jennings (contralto), Ian Partridge (tenor), Bernard Dickerson (tenor), Wynford Evans (tenor), Kenneth Bowen (tenor), Richard Angas (bass), John Noble (bass), John Carol Case (bass), Christopher Keyte (bass)
Hugh Bean (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra (Serenade)
London Symphony Orchestra (English Folk Songs, Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’)
New Philharmonia Orchestra
Adrian Boult
CD10
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Constantin Silvestri
Sea Songs -March
English Folk Songs – suite
Central Band of the RAF/Wing Commander Eric Banks
Dawn Patrol arr Muir Mathieson
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Charles Groves
Concerto grosso
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult
Romance in D-flat major for harmonica with strings and piano
Larry Adler (harmonica)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent
Tuba Concerto
Philip Catelinet (tuba)
London Symphony Orchestra/John Barbirolli
CD11
Serenade to Music (orchestral version)
The Poisoned Kiss -Overture
Old King Cole – A Ballet for Orchestra
Five Mystical Songs
Prelude on an Old Carol Tune
The Running Set
Prelude: 49th Parallel
Sea Songs – March
Stephen Roberts (baritone)
Sinfonia Chorus/Northern Sinfonia of England/Richard Hickox
CD12
Variations for Orchestra orch Gordon Jacob
Two Hymn-Tune Preludes
Concerto accademico, in D minor
Three Preludes founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes orch Arnold Foster
String Quartet No 1 in G minor
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Variations)
Northern Sinfonia of England
Richard Hickox
Britten Quartet
CD13
Violin Sonata in A minor
Phantasy Quintet
String Quartet No 2,
Six Studies in English Folk Song, for cello and piano
Music Group of London
Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’ arr. Watson Forbes
Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra arr Watson Forbes
Herbert Downes (viola): Osian Ellis (harp): Gerald Moore (piano)
CD14
Toward the Unknown Region
Dona nobis pacem
Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune
Sheila Armstrong (soprano): John Carol Case (baritone)
Peter Katin (piano)
London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra/Adrian Boult
Magnificat
Helen Watts (soprano): Christopher Hyde-Smith (flute)
Ambrosian Singers/Orchestra Nova of London/Meredith Davies
CD15
An Oxford Elegy
John Westbrook (speaker); Jacques Orchestra
Whitsunday Hymn
Robin Doveton (tenor)
Flos Campi
Flos campi suite
Cecil Aronowitz (viola)/Jacques Orchestra
Sancta Civitas
Ian Patridge (tenor): John Shirley Quirk (baritone)/Bach Choir/Kings College Cambridge, London Symphony Orchestra
David Willcocks
CD16
Five Tudor Portraits
Benedicite
Five variants of 'Dives and Lazarus
Linden Lea
Wither’s Rocking Rhythm
Elizabeth Bainbridge (contralto)/John Carol Case (baritone)/Bach Choir/ New Philharmonia Orchestra
Heather Harper (soprano)/London Symphony Orchestra
Jacques Orchestra
David Willcocks
Choir of New College Oxford/Edward Higginbotham
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/Stephen Cleobury
CD17
Hodie
Fantasia on Christmas Carols (version with strings & organ)
John Barrow (baritone)/Choir of Guildford Cathedral/String Orchestra/Barry Rose
Janet Baker (mezzo soprano)/Richard Lewis (tenor)/John Shirley-Quirk (baritone)
Bach Choir/London Symphony Orchestra/David Willcocks
CD18
Fantasia on Christmas Carols (version with full orchestra)
In Windsor Forest
Songs of travel
On Wenlock Edge
Stephen Roberts (baritone)/London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Richard Hickox
Bach Choir/Jacques Orchestra/David Willcocks
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Norman Del Mar
Thomas Allen (baritone)
Robert Tear (tenor)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
CD19
Mass in G minor
All People that on Earth Do Dwell
O taste and see
Te Deum in G
For all the saints
Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn tunes
The Truth from Above
O little town of Bethlehem
Joseph and Mary
And all in the morning
Alleluya, sing to Jesus
Come down, o Love divine
All people that on earth do dwell
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/David Willcocks
English Chamber Orchestra/Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Martin Neary, Russell Burgess, Philip Moore, Philip Ledger, Stephen Cleobury
CD20
Four Hymns
Merciless Beauty
Ten Blake Songs
The Water Mill
The New Ghost
On Wenlock Edge
Jennifer Partridge (piano)
Ian Partridge (tenor)/Music Group of London
CD21
The House of Life
Songs of Travel
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor)/David Willison (piano)
CD22
Songs with piano, choral folksong arrangements - Various Artists
CD23
Folksong Arrangements; East Anglia, Wessex, Carols, France, Newfoundland, Voice and Violin, A Song of Thanksgiving
Robert Tear (tenor)/Hugh Bean (violin)/Philip Ledger (piano)
Betty Dolemore (soprano)/Robert Speaight (speaker)/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult
CD24
Epithalamion
Riders to the Sea
Stephen Roberts (baritone)/Bach Choir/London Philharmonic Orchestra/David Willcocks
Norma Burrowes/Margaret Price/Helen Watts/Benjamin Luxon/Pauline Stevens/Ambrosian Singers/Orchestra Nova of London/Meredith Davies
CD25 and 26
Hugh the Drover
Robert Tear/Sheila Armstrong/Michael Rippon/Robert Lloyd/Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Charles Groves
CD27 and 28
Sir John in Love
Felicity Palmer/Robert Tear/Robert Lloyd/Helen Watts/New Philharmonia Orchestra/Meredith Davies
CD 29 and 30
The Pilgrim's Progress and rehearsal sequence
Ian Partridge/John Shirley-Quirk/Jean Temperley/John Noble/London Philharmonic Choir/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult
