One more Vaughan Williams ?
Fri, Apr 6 2012, 11:39PM
Vaughan Williams is a composer who is growing on me. Symphonies 2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9. The Oboe concerto and the Violin concerto. The Wasps and the Tallis. The 2nd String Quartet and the Violin Sonata (on an excellent Hyperion disc) Give me one more work that is worth exploring, or have I got too much already.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 1:42AM
#2
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Job, a Masque for Dancing. The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite (not just the Overture). And just about anything he wrote. If I could take only one composer's music to that desert or tropical island it would be his.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 6:13AM
#3
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
If I could take only one composer's music to that desert or tropical island it would be his.
Now there's a great topic for a new thread. Which composer? A limit of say, eight works, with reasons.
Could liven up a slow period, don't you think?
Any takers?
Vic.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 3:09PM
#4
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Job, a Masque for Dancing. The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite (not just the Overture). And just about anything he wrote. If I could take only one composer's music to that desert or tropical island it would be his.
Agree but not so sure about the desert island.
Flos campi. Totally original and unbearably moving.
The tuba concerto;-)
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 4:10PM
#5
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Agree but not so sure about the desert island.
Flos campi. Totally original and unbearably moving.
The tuba concerto;-)
Yes Flos campi definitely - also Hodie (don't wait for Christmas!)
I love all the operas, they are perhaps not the greatest operas but they do all contain some wonderful music.
Given the other thread re. Tuba concertos, I listened to the Vaughan Williams again yesterday. I thought it quite a jolly little work.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 6:25PM
#6
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
I would add Five Variants on Dives & Lazarus. The already mentioned great Tallis Fantasia is, for me, an absolute masterpiece. Barbirolli's famous recording of the latter with the Sinfonia of London c/w Elgar's Intro & Allegro & Serenade for Strings would certainly be on my shortlist for Vic's eight. I see it's currently available again on LP too (from HI Q Records).
Also endorse Parla's liking for the Partita for double string orch, for some reason little played. Boult's early Decca stereo is stunning with sound of amazing presence & immediacy.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 6:31PM
#7
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
PS Hugh why do you omit symphonies 1& 7? No 1 because it's choral? Admittedly No 7 is more like a tone poem than a symphony but I rather like it with its interesting orchestration and the impact when the organ comes in.
Sat, Apr 7 2012, 11:40PM
#8
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Vaughan Williams is a great composer but not for any desert island. Not for me, since I hate desert islands. I don't plan to ever find myself anywhere there and the music is so abundantly great that it's impossible to be confined in any place in this world. Thank God!
Keep searching more of VW's music in your place, Hugh. There is plenty of good music from a huge number of superb composers from different eras to explore too.
Parla
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 12:37AM
#9
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Nice to hear your thoughts on desert islands, assuming you've been on one. I think most people know what I meant. VW is my favorite composer, although I hardly avoid others - Rubbra, Elgar, Copland, Sibelius etc and the usual suspects. But who cares, anyway? Just listen to as much of Vaughan Williams as you can. You won't be disappointed.
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 1:49AM
#10
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Interesting question - who would you pick to listen to if you were stuck with just one composer for the foreseeable future. It wouldn't be a personal favourite like Bax, Sibelius or even Brahms. Not enough scope and range and I can't imagine sitting on a baking beach listening to the first two. It would probably be Mozart. Everything in there from chamber to opera and after more than 40 years studying his music I still continue to make new discoveries.
But boy, would I miss all the others!
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 1:05PM
#11
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Just one? Beethoven, for the 32 piano sonatas.
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 1:42PM
#12
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Carl Orff. It would encourage the desire to build a raft and get away at all costs.
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 1:44PM
#13
RE: One more VW ?
PS Hugh why do you omit symphonies 1& 7? No 1 because it's choral? Admittedly No 7 is more like a tone poem than a symphony but I rather like it with its interesting orchestration and the impact when the organ comes in.
Never got on with the melodramatic overblown first symphony and the seventh is, let's face it, is film music. But then I have changed my mind about works and composers before. The London sounds like a composer just finding his feet with a symphony so I tend to view that as No1. With the third he has hit the ground running and it sounds like a original composer (for most of the time). I would likewise have to call Sibelius' third symphony as his first sign of true originality. But would pick his first over his melodramatic overblown second.
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 2:45PM
#14
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Vaughan Williams is a great composer but not for any desert island. Not for me, since I hate desert islands. I don't plan to ever find myself anywhere there and the music is so abundantly great that it's impossible to be confined in any place in this world. Thank God!
Keep searching more of VW's music in your place, Hugh. There is plenty of good music from a huge number of superb composers from different eras to explore too.
Parla
Just so you do not continue to thrash around like a fish out of water here, in the UK, and for the past seventy years, there is a radio programme called "Desert Island Discs" where guests are asked to choose eight discs they would take, if the situation ever arose, to a desert island. Elizabeth Schwartzkopf chose seven of her own recordings and, then, maintained she had misunderstood the question, for example.
That is what people are referencing in alluding to a desert island.
I'm pleased that, your lack of celebrity status aside, you would not choose to participate. Well done!
Sun, Apr 8 2012, 10:30PM
#15
RE: One more Vaughan Williams ?
Regardless of the background of the "Desert Island Records", I detest these kind of artificial questions, where people have to provide answers that cannot be valid or satisfactory for them.
In some other parts of the world, another popular question is :"which work would you like to be played in your funeral?", implying which is your most favourable (beloved) piece of music. Those who accepted to provide replies, they admit afterwords that they simply had to provide an answer. However, a female scholar, journalist and writer, when asked, she said: Among the many pieces of music I love so much, Schubert's Ave Maria (by the way, her name was Maria) is so close to my heart. However, don't dare to play it in my funeral, because I may get up from my grave".
Anyway, for those who don't mind participating in these kind of mind games, enjoy your replies.
Going back to VW's music, dear Hugh, Symphonies 1 & 7 are inseparable works in the considerable orchestral opus of the great composer. No.1 is a huge attempt to a major achievement, while no. 7 is not simply "film music"; it's good music, after all, and that counts more than anything else. (By the way, in the "film music" output, we may find some of the most glorious works ever composed).
Parla
There are quite a few more to explore from such a prolific composer. In genres:
- Choral: The very interesting "Serenade to Music", the inspired "Mass in g minor" and the almost sublime "Donna Nobis Pacem" along with the "Five Mystical Songs" and the "Five Tudor Portraits".
- Vocal: The very expressive "On Wenlock Edge".
- Chamber: The subtle "Phantasy Quintet" and possibly the 1st String Quartet.
- Orchestral: The perennial "Fantasia on Greensleeves" and the mellifluous "Lark Ascending" along with the more cerebral "Partita for Double String Orchestra". You may try the Piano Concerto in C major and the (in)famous Tuba Concerto in f minor.
- Opera: At least the quite interesting "Sir John in Love" and his masterpiece "The Pilgrim's Progress".
There are some more, but I guess that's enough for an answer for only..."one more" work worthy to explore.
Good hunting.
Parla