VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No 2, ‘A London Symphony’
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 11/2017
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 72
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA68190
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 2, '(A) London Symphony' |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins, Conductor Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer |
Sound Sleep |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
BBC Symphony Orchestra Elizabeth Watts, Soprano Kitty Whately, Mezzo soprano Martyn Brabbins Mary Bevan, Soprano Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer |
Orpheus with his lute |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
BBC Symphony Orchestra Elizabeth Watts, Soprano Martyn Brabbins Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer |
Variations for Brass Band |
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Composer Royal College of Music Brass Band |
Author: Andrew Achenbach
I particularly admire the way Brabbins ensures that the wonderfully hushed and expectant introduction (which here seems to unfold with all the time in the world) acts as a structurally satisfying counterbalance to the same material’s reappearance from 11'43" in the extended epilogue – a canny touch symptomatic of the long-term cogency of his conception. He also gauges exceptionally well the slumbering unease which stalks the third movement’s profound coda, its portents of tragedy carrying over all the more devastatingly into the anguished cry that launches the finale and the weary tread of the ensuing Maestoso alla marcia. Above all, Brabbins exhibits a very real love for this remarkable score, whose wealth of memorable invention, generosity of spirit and kaleidoscopic range of mood combine to make the composer’s initial printed thoughts such a feast for both head and heart.
The fill-ups are a joy, too. Elizabeth Watts makes a radiant showing in Orpheus With His Lute, and she is joined by Mary Bevan and Kitty Whately for a disarmingly idiomatic rendering of Sound Sleep, a ravishing setting of Christina Rossetti first heard as an a cappella offering in April 1903 at the East Lincolnshire Music Festival in Spilsby (the present orchestration followed soon afterwards). Conceived as a test-piece for the 1957 National Brass Band Championships, the tasteful set of Variations likewise enjoys exemplary advocacy, this time from the crisply disciplined Royal College of Music Brass Band.
An irresistible anthology, in sum, painstakingly supervised by the experienced Keener/Eadon production team and essential listening for all RVW devotees.
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