Customer Reviews

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5

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This is a package of two of the most significative symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The EMI/Boult series of VW' works usually meant definitive performance. This disc sparkles with beautiful orchestral sound, and Boult's attention to detail (he, for one, was one of the first associated conductors with the works of VW). The performances we find on this CD are of excellent musical quality, and the orchestras involved have well displayed the magnificence of these symphonic masterpieces. Boult is generally a synonym for great VW - his rendition of the 5th in D (with the LPO) offers one of the absolute on record. The atmospheric, glowing string sound, the subtle variations in orchestral volume and balance, and the integrity of the musical structures, are strenghts of the present recording (this wasn't the first time Boult made it on record). One of my favorites, this VW recording is one to be treasured; since the "Pastoral" Symphony is a pertinent match with the No.5, the album is pleasant to listen to from debut to the end. It certainly recalls the fascinating beauty of these romantic works, and is a contribution that belongs to the utmost musical achievements the 20th century has to offer.

I remember my first encounter with Vaughan Williams; it was, of course, his Symphony No. 2 ("London")--- and doesn't it always seem to be THIS particular symphony, especially when you're young, like I was, and open to music you may never have heard. Naturally, I thought it was grand, and it is. As is his Symphony No. 7 ("Sinfonia Antartica"), which I discovered soon afterwards and also felt thrilled by. As a novice, I fell easily under the accessibility of these works--- and the spells they cast. I would never give up this period of some thirty years ago, or the hunger that drove me to search out more and more music, or the growth that it incurred.

However, time and age intervene, as they are apt to do, and our vision widens, our experience broadens, life, with its diverse pleasure and pain, enables us or forces us to open ourselves even further. Thus I came to VW's Symphonies No.'s 3 and 5, not because I had never heard them or owned them. To the contrary, I collected three complete sets of the VW Symphonies, in my LP days, the Boult included; but I never REALLY heard them. And these two symphonies in particular never really "touched" me... barely even listened to them... until now, years and years later.

Now they float over my soul like the dusk of a late autumn afternoon--- when my heart is filled with the wonder and puzzlement of seasons, years, decades gone by--- and the spirit, too, admits that the evening shadows are indeed growing longer and suddenly the sense of things past becomes an intense, yearning nostalgia. [I wish that in my twenties I had had, emotionally, what I do now in my early fifties--- and the wisdom to go hand-in-hand with it! But those regrets are better left for another time.]

With the ageless Sir Adrian at the podium, Vaughan Williams' Symphonies 3 and 5 are as beautiful, and bountiful, a coupling as one could wish for--- and in peerless performances like these, they bring tears to the eyes.

From the haunting opening bars of the "Pastoral," so reminiscent of "The Lark Ascending," we are enveloped by such a languid melancholy, lulled pervasively into such a womb-like and secure "place," that the temptation to stay "in the moment" is more than simply an overpowering desire: it is a need that arises from the innermost part of us. Boult's flowing sense of orchestral color, nuance and detail, his hushed and ethereal handling of VW's mournfully heartfelt passages, his complete and utter sympathy with composition and composer--- all --- make this "Pastoral" something that beggars description.

And the Fifth Symphony? This is, absolutely, VW's greatest achievement and, at that point in his life, the synthesis of everything he was--- and the promise of everything he would, as we know, become. What an ebb and flow exist in this work! What glorious swells of lyricism and emotion wash over us; what an all-surrounding atmosphere encompasses! Like a spiritual "sister" to the "Pastoral," listening to the Fifth Symphony is like drinking from the wellspring of life--- and becoming as one renewed, reborn --- a powerfil simile for one of the symphonic milestones of the twentieth century.

EMI has joined together VW's most wonderous of symphonies and, under the baton of Sir Adrian (with grand sound from both the New Philharmonia and London Philharmonic), has secured a definitive place in the VW catalogue for both on this most magnificent of CDs.

[Running time: 71:28]

These are two qualities melted one into another that outline symphony 3 "Pastoral" and 5. The scope is musically generous, rich, while maintaining the substance of everything this composer did. The conducting , as does the playing, is matched or surpassed only by a few peers. Two great pieces with solemn melodies, with dark/light stamina, a disquietude longing for pastoral respite.

The critics really make it hard for those of us who love the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. It's bad enough that Aaron Copland once said that listening to Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5 was like staring at a cow for 45 minutes. It's even worse that Tim Page, music critic for the Washington Post, likened The Lark Ascending--my nomination for the most purely beautiful piece of music ever written--to a lovely but vapid woman you're embarrassed to remember you were once in love with. But the absolutely last straw has been broken: the author of a new, violently condemnatory biography of the late Anthony Burgess uses Burgess' choice of Vaughan Williams for his appearance on the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" as proof positive of the essential mediocrity of Burgess' mind.
OK, maybe I'm mediocre too (and I'd be perfectly happy to be as mediocre as Anthony Burgess!). But I STILL consider Vaughan Williams one of the most remarkable composers of the 20th century, and certainly one of the most consistently delightful. His Third (Pastoral) and Fifth Symphonies have a soulful richness and luminosity few 20th-century works can match, and it's hard to imagine finer or more idiomatic versions of them than those conducted by the late Sir Adrian Boult. Particularly at its mid-level price, this CD is a must for anyone interested in English music.

When I was a kid, and just beginning to explore music, I loved a lot of the standards of classical music, and still do. But the composer who ultimately captured my heart was Ralph Vaughan Williams, and he did it with the 3rd symphony.

Prior to that time I had heard the emotionally and spiritually powerful THOMAS TALLIS FANTASIA and the delightful third movement of the LONDON SYMPHONY (also on EMI, conducted by John Barbirolli -- Mr. Perfect Tempo). I heard these pieces on the radio, and didn't know who the composer was until my brother loaned me some cassette tapes, including the EMI, Adrian Boult recording of the 3rd & 5th symphonies. When I listened to them, I felt like a door in my soul had opened wide.

The 3rd symphony evokes a beautiful, lonely landscape, probably inspired by the French countryside during World War I, in which R.V.W. served as an ambulance driver. Read Ursula Vaughan Williams' biography of R. V. W. for more information about this chapter of the composer's life. When I was writing my 5th book, I listened to the 3rd symphony over and over, trying to capture the tone. This is no easy task -- I agree with the other reviewers that the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams isn't easy to describe with words.

Symphony 5 was written during World War II, by which time writing symphonies was the best contribution Vaughan Williams could make to the war effort. Both symphonies express a profound appreciation for the beauty of nature, an acknowledgement of the sadness and loss of war, and a belief in hope for the future.

It's funny, but when I'm listening to the music of Vaughan Williams I tend to see the wild and lonely places of Arizona, a landscape as different from England and France as it could possibly be. The 3rd symphony reminds me of Southern Arizona and the 5th always evokes the Grand Canyon. I think this is testimony to Ralph Vaughan Williams' ability to convey his deep understanding of and love for the wild places of the world. My heart is his, forever.

The Third and Fifth symphonies of Vaughan Williams are among his most peaceful and serene of his works. I once heard a commentator on public radio say that he listened to the Fifth symphony before boarding a plane. If the unthinkable happened and the plane when down, he contended that he would be better prepared to accept his death have reached so serene a state. The Fifth was written when Vaughan Williams was in his early 70s, and the mood of reflection and peace associated with the music made may think the composer had entered a state of restful reflection. They did not dream that he would write four more symphonies that would prove Vaughan Williams had more fire in him than suspected.

The Third symphony (Pastoral) also has a similar feeling of reflection. It is odd that it was written in France during the First World War while Vaughan Williams was in the ambulance corps. I think of it as hearkening back to a time before the war when the French countryside, now blasted by shells, was a peaceful place.

These recordings are among the best conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, and although they date from the early 1950s they have been so beautifully remastered that it will not matter they are not digital recordings. The subtle orchestral shadings in both symphonies are magical and have rarely been caught so precisely. A must for those interested in Vaughan Williamss music.

Boult and RVW go way way back, of course, so he offers authoritative performances just about all the time. Here the Pastoral is the better performance, a lovely and sensitive reading of a very elusive work. The Fifth is a little slack, unfortunately, but if you can accept that it's still a warm and loving rendition.

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