Ralph Vaughan Williams - An Introduction
A short introduction by Steve Newman for a much longer piece on the composer…
Buy the Choral Works
As a composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is still one of those constants of English music, and although he has been dead now for the best part of fifty years his presence and his magnificent music haunt us still.
I remember, in the late 1970s buying two huge box-sets of his work - one contained the nine symphonies, plus a collection of smaller orchestral pieces, with the other a collection of all his choral compositions, something like twenty LPs in all. The majority of both collections were recorded in the 1950s and conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, with VW close at hand throughout the sessions. They are without question definitive recordings with very few later ones coming anywhere near. These recordings have real depth as if somehow Vaughan Williams is putting his musical thoughts and passions (and his music tells us what a passionate man he was) straight from his heart to the disc, that the orchestras involved - the London Philharmonic, and the New Philharmonia - were part of his heart and brain - in other words there is an immediacy. Obviously it is Sir Adrian Boult’s conducting ( and that of David Willcocks on some of the choral pieces) and his own intuitive scholarship and love of the music, and great friendship with and love of VW, that helps bring out this feeling ( he did the same with Elgar’s work), creating a sense that the music is simply part of the air we breath, and of the pulsing of our own hearts. It is very very personal music fashioned out of love, memory, hurt, danger, and the violence of the 20th century which, with the genius of the man, is writ large for those of us who want to share not only his music but something that is now as much a part of our heritage and culture as Shakespeare and Barbara Hepworth. And I use those two examples because Vaughan Williams was both traditional and extremely modern, he is a continuation of the emotionality and melodic and ochestrating genius that was Sir Edward Elgar, and one of the greatest inspirations for the atonal red-bloodedness of Sir Harrison Birtwistle.
Original box-set recordings: HMV SLS 822 ( The Symphonies)
” ” HMV SLS 5082 ( The Choral Works)
To Be Continued…
Greetings!:
Please pardon me, but the recordings cited in your article above are not the ones from the 1950’s which VW personally observed (except for the _9th_ which was recorded just after his death), but ones dating from the 1960’s and ’70’s. The 1950’s recordings, again apart from the _9th_, were originally issued on Decca, and now, so far as I know, are available on CD on a variety of labels. My comment about the _5th_ in my response to your “Elgar At Tiddington House” post refers to the Decca recording in comparison with that later EMI version. I currently own most of those EMI recordings, along with those of the choral works. Sir David Willcocks is a special conductor for me, I having initially met him at a University of Maryland choral workshop in the mid-1970’s. I last met him over All-Saints Weekend in the Wilmington, Delaware, area in 2003 when he was guest conducting at Christ Church Christiana Hundred, and, though he was in his early 80’s at that time, he was as spry as ever, bounding on and off of the chancel with seeming ease. He also has clever ways of getting what he wants! On this occasion, after the Sunday-morning service and bisit to the Memorial Gardens, he told me that he would be coming to visit as soon as he finished talking with someone else across the aisle. He finished that conversation, came across to where I was sitting, nudged me gently yet firmly to move over, and then we bisited! He again is a remarkable man and conductor!
J. V.
By J. Vaughan on August 7th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Unfortunately, unlike when I wrote my response to the Elgar article this morning, I was unable to proofread what I wrote above due to my screen reader for the blind not being compatible with the background, etc., (though again, for some reason, it _WAS_ compatible this morning) and thus I missed the word “visit” appearing twice as “bisit.” Hopefully my meaning was clear in spite of that!
J. V.
By J. Vaughan on August 7th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Dear J. Vaughan:
I do actually say in the above intro that the ‘majority’ of the recordings are from the 1950s.
Please continue to send your comments, but if you would like to contact me on either my Syntagma email, or my humdrumming email, please feel free to do so.
By Steve Newman on August 15th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Vaughan Williams. Not only great music but also a great man. A man of genius (I bet VW would have HATED such sorts of remarks). No doubt, he paved the way to contemporaries such as Finzi, Rubbra and others, himself having “inherited” from the Elizabethan era and, above all, the English folk tradition. The inimitable Tallis Fantasia and the powerful Mass in G minor are examples of his skills whereas the nine symphonies reveal facets of the man and creator (and, of course, of the context of his time and place). Thanks, Mr Newman for your enlightening comments!
By jean c. (Canada) on July 7th, 2007 at 3:29 pm