Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs [Box set, Collector's Edition]

William Shimell (Performer), Stephen Roberts (Performer), John Carol Case (Performer), John Shirley-Quirk (Performer), John Barrow (Performer), Thomas Allen (Performer), Thomas Hampson (Performer), Geoffrey Shaw (Performer), Christopher Keyte (Performer), Benjamin Luxon (Performer), Leslie Fyson (Performer), Henry Newman (Performer), Terence Sharpe (Performer), Steve Davis (Performer), Steve Davies (Performer), Brian Etheridge (Performer), Raimund Herincx (Performer), John Noble (Performer), Stephen Varcoe (Performer), Mark Rowlinson (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: William Shimell, Stephen Roberts, John Carol Case, John Shirley-Quirk, John Barrow, et al.
• Audio CD (July 8, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 30
• Format: Box set, Collector's Edition
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00156ZWV0
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,350 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #2 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Brass > Tuba
  • #2 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Brass > Euphonium
  • #6 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Te Deum

Track Listings

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Editorial Reviews

30 CDs of visionary compositions by the musical poet of the English landscape! From the pastoral to the bombastic, here are all of Ralph Vaughan Williams' celebrated masterworks including many rarely performed pieces: The Lark Ascending; Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis ; the symphonies including A Sea Symphony; London Symphony; Pastoral Symphony , and Sinfonia Antarctica; The Wasps Suite; Fantasia on Greensleeves; Piano Concerto in C; Serenade to Music trust us, it's here! Featuring the London Symphony Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia of England, London Philharmonic Choir, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Value, Fine Performances, July 17, 2008

By 

Paul Van de Water (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs (Audio CD)

For lovers of Ralph Vaughan Williams' music, the prospect of obtaining most of his works on 30 CDs for $50 or less should be irresistible. It's a great way to fill in the gaps in your collection, or to become acquainted with RVW's less familiar works. Among the highlights of this box are the Serenade to Music and the Pilgrim's Progress (both conducted by Adrian Boult), Partita for Double String Orchestra (Vernon Handley), Riders to the Sea and Sir John in Love (Meredith Davies), Hugh the Drover (Charles Groves), and On Wenlock Edge and Ten Blake Songs (sung by Ian Partridge). Vernon Handley's recordings of the symphonies have received uniform 5-star reviews on Amazon.

In most cases, the performances and sound quality are very good to excellent. Hard-core fans will appreciate the inclusion of variants of a few works, such as the vocal and purely orchestral versions of the Serenade to Music. As would be expected in a compendium of this sort, a few of the items have performances or sound that is less than ideal. For example, Matthew Best's recording of A Song of Thanksgiving is far better than the one included here, but the Hyperion disc is no longer in print, and a used copy costs half as much as this entire package. The booklet lists the performers and the contents of every track, but it lacks both notes and texts. Nonetheless, there's more than enough great stuff here to justify the modest price.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EMI's Vaughan Williams Collection, August 14, 2008

By 

Harold Fromm (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs (Audio CD)

This splendid set, an amazing bargain, provides most of Vaughan Williams's music in various, sometimes relatively recent, vintages of recordings. VW is a vastly underrated composer. Some of the symphonies are bonafide masterpieces, especially numbers 4 and 6, but the London Symphony (#2) and the 8th and 9th are pretty top drawer as well, if not as stunning as 4 and 6. But then, 3 and 5 are excellent in a more "pastoral" way, though hardly the "cow music" written about in a recent New York Times article. If VW has written any "cow music" my ears have never detected it. The First Symphony, however, a choral work based on text by Walt Whitman, is as uncowlike as you can get but too hysterically pitched for my taste (like Mahler's Eighth).

The sublime Tallis Fantasy is given an expert performance, the marvelous Oboe Concerto is well done. The two string quartets are little known but very worth listening to.

In all, at less than $2 per disk, it's hard to see why anyone would turn it down. The set's only serious defect is the pathetically inadequate documentation. One can hardly figure out who's performing what. The disks themselves lack track numbers, very inconvenient, and the booklet lacks notes. But the set is nicely boxed and at this price it seems churlish to quarrel.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmissable at the price for lovers of this lovable composer, January 4, 2011

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs (Audio CD)

Vaughan Williams vies with Elgar as the most beloved British composer, and EMI has amassed an unrivaled catalog of great performances of his works. For that reason, most of us who love this music will own a goodly proportion of the CDs included here. Before offering any comments, let me list the major contents of the 30 CDs packaged in the set (the remaining minor works can be found at arkivmusic.com):


Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Vernon Handley (cond.)
Joan Rogers (soprano), William Shimell (baritone), Alison Barlow (soprano)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Oboe Concerto in A minor
Jonathan Small (oboe)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley

Serenade to Music (choral version)
Vernon Handley (cond.)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Partita for double string orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley

The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite
Versnon Handley
Royal Liverpool Phil.

Prelude and Fugue in C minor
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley

Piano Concerto in C major
Piers Lane (piano)
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley

Concerto in C for two pianos
Vitya Vronsky & Victor Babin
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

Serenade to Music (16 soloists)
London Symphony Orchestra & New Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

English Folk Song Suite(orchestral)
Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
London Symphony Orchestra & New Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

The Lark Ascending
Hugh Bean (Violin)
London Symphony Orchestra & New Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Constantin Silvestri (cond.)
Bournemouth SO

English Folk Song Suite (band)
Royal Air Force Central Band , Etic Banks (cond.)

Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra
chalres Groves, cond.
London Philharmonic Orch.

Tuba Concerto in F minor
Philip Catelinet (Tuba)
London Sym. Orch, John Barbirolli, cond.

Serenade to Music (orchestral)
Northern Sinfonia of England, Richard Hickox

Old King Cole
Bradley Creswick (Violin)
Northern Sinfonia of England, Richard Hickox

Five Mystical Songs
Stephen Roberts (Baritone)
Northern Sinfonia of England, Richard Hickox

Sea Songs
Northern Sinfonia of England, Richard Hickox

Variations for Brass Band (orchestral)
Richard Hickox (cond.)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Northern SInfonia of England

String Quartet No. 1 in G minor
Britten Quartet

Violin Concerto in D minor 'Concerto Accademico'
Bradley Creswick (Violin)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra & Northern SInfonia of England, Richard Hickox

Violin Sonata in A minor
Hugh Bean (Violin), David Parkhouse (Piano)

String Quartet no. 1 in G minor
Britten quartet

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor
Music Group of London

Toward the Unknown Region
Adrian Boult (cond.)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir

Dona Nobis Pacem
Sheila Armstrong (Soprano), John Carol Case (Baritone)
Adrian Boult (cond.)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir


Magnificat
Christopher Hyde-Smith (Flute), Helen Watts (Alto)
Meredith Davis (cond.)
Ambrosian Singers Women's Voices, Orchestra Nova of London


An Oxford Elegy
Flos Campi
Whitsunday Hymn
Sancta Civitas
Kings College Cambridge & London Symphony Orchestra, David Willcocks

Five Tudor Portraits
Elisabeth Bainbridge (Mezzo Soprano), John Carol Case (Baritone)
Bach Choir, New Phil Orch & LSO, David Willcocks

Benedicite
Five Variants of `Dives and Lazarus'
Bach Choir, New Phil Orch & LSO, David Willcocks

Hodie (A Christmas Cantata)
Janet Baker
Bach Choir & LSO, David Willcocks

Fantasia on Christmas Carols (w/orch)
Barry Rose (cond.), Guildford Cathedral Choir

In Windsor Forest
Norman Del Mar, Bournemouth SO

Songs of Travel (orch. version)
Thomas Allen (bar)
Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham SO


On Wenlock Edge (orch. version)
Robert Teat (tenor)
Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham SO


Mass in G minor
The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune 'All people that on earth do dwell'
Te Deum in G
Preludes (3) on Welsh Hymn Tunes (Bryn Calfaria, Rhosymedre & Hyfrydol), for organ
Kings College Cambridge, David Willcocks

Four Hymns
Merciless Beauty
Ten Blake Songs
On Wenlock Edge
Ian Partridge (tenor), Music Group of London

Music Group of London
House of Life
Songs of Travel
Anthony Rolfe Johnson & David Willison (piano)

A Song of Thanksgiving
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

Epithalamion
Meredith Davies
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Orchestra Nova of Londo, David Willcocks

Riders to the Sea
Meredith Davies
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Orchestra Nova of Londo, David Willcocks

Hugh the Drover
Robert Tear / Sheila Armstrong / Michael Rippon & Robert Lloyd
Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral & RPO, Charles Groves

Sir John in Love
Felicity Palmer / Robert Tear / Robert Lloyd & Helen Watts
New Phil Orchestra, Meredith Davies

The Pilgrim's Progress (complete)
& rehearsal sequence
Ian Partridge / John Shirley-Quirk / Jean Temperley & John Noble
LPC / LPO, Adrian Boult

Job - A Masque for Dancing
London Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Boult, cond.

My comments are very brief. It was astute of EMI to lure old hands who already own multiple versions of the nine symphonies with the fine but lesser known cycle under Vernon Handley. The alternative was the much reissued one under sir Adrian Boult, the composer's friend, sometime dedicatee, and quintessential interpreter. As authoritative as Boult is, Handley runs close behind. Even better would have been for EMI to pick and choose among their stable of RVW conductors, including Barbirolli and Haitink, to select the best version of each work.

The singers chosen for the song cycles and choral songs are close to ideal, and for me it's gratifying that older tenors (Tear, Rolfe Johnson, Partridge) were chosen over Ian Bostridge, despite his fame and enthusiastic fan base. It was a serious misstep, however, to skip over the version of Dona Nobis Pacem, perhaps the most profound of RVW's choral works, sung by Bryn Terfel and Yvonne Kinney under Hickox. Sancta Civitas from the same forces would also have been preferable.

I am not a fan of RVW's operas, and neither are record companies, so these performances are the cream of the crop, on the whole. Riders to the Sea is almost a literal transcription of Synge's play and holds my interest. So does Pilgrim's Progress, but less so in the complete opera format; there's a radio broadcast featuring the best music and a gripping narration of Bunyan's text that works better -- seek out either the BBC wartime broadcast or a reproduction in modern sound narrated by John Gielgud.

Least known among the major orchestral works is probably the various concertos for oboe, tuba, piano, and piano duet. These are almost never played in the U.S. but circulate in British concerts, where all of RVW's music is a staple. I wouldn't say that any repay devotion, but the oboe and tuba concertos are the most popular.

In all, the super budget price at Amazon factors out to about the same as four or five mid-priced records, a small outlay if you have room on your shelf for the whole set. I don't tend to reach into big collector's sets once I buy them, but there's no arguing against the quality of what we have hear.