Customer Reviews

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Grainger: Irish Tune from County

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

St. Louis Symphony, as built by Slatkin (and his predecessors, too!), is a gorgeous instrument, no matter how you look at it. It has a tone all of it's own; and no, it isn't Vienna or Berlin or Stoki/Ormandy's Philly. But what this orchestra manages to do is play with Szell-like precision with lush, silky strings and beautiful brass and woodwinds. There are some outstanding soloists in the woodwinds and brass: Silfies on clarinet and Slaughter on trumpet come immediately to mind. And the orchestra seems to have always been blessed by world-class concertmasters.

But you're probably reading this to learn about the music. Slatkin has had at least two recorded outings on the Vaughn-Williams (the other with the equally beautiful Philharmonia); this is the one to have. The players sound committed, the conducting lets the music breathe and it has a soul. Slatkin's Philharmonia try was a beautiful, emotionless jewel--served under glass. The only recording I know to top this one is Ormandy's breathtaking outing on Sony.

This is one of three recorded performances of Barber's great Adagio. This one is beautifully played...but it's too fast for me; his EMI Barber disc is the one to have.

The Pavane perhaps lacks a little bit in the overt drama that can sometimes be found in this work; but this interpretation of quiet, beautifuly lushness will do just fine.

The Grainger and the Satie are quiet, beautiful lollipops played to perfection. There isn't really a lot of room for interpretation, and Slatkin presents the music thankfully at face value.

The engineering is very good, catching the beauty of the strings and plenty of the Powell Symphony Hall ambience. A quick look at recording dates makes you wonder if the orchestra recorded these pieces mostly for fun: they were recording Mahler during the same period!

My only complaint about this disc is that it's too short!

This CD contains very well played pieces by several well known composers. However, the main reason I got this CD was for Vaughn Williams "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". Mr Slatkin's interpretation is by far my favorite of this masterpiece composition. It is well controlled and the climactic point of this piece is given room/time to breath and express itself. Very nicely done.

While I agree with the comments made by Maxwell Johnson regarding the Satie and Barber performances on this CD, I cannot do without this version of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia. It is by far the finest, most thoughtful and most moving rendition I've heard. Sure, the recording quality could be better. However, I have three other better quality recordings of this piece, and the performances are all unlistenable after having my discovery this particular one. I suspect to someone who is more accustomed to hearing a conductor rush through this piece, usually out of fear it'll come across ponderous and tedious, this performance may sound sluggish. But this rendition is truly more fitting for Vaughan Wiilliams, who can be a bit more indulgent for more impatient listeners, and also for Thomas Tallis, whose brilliant theme deserves to be relished thoroughly, istead of merely glanced at in passing on a hurried way to the end.

The other thing is I find the woodwind performance on the Faure to be excellant, and seeing this piece is usually recorded as the choral version, thus the voices obscure Faure's gorgeous woodwind orchestration, this is a rare delight.

I am happy this CD is still available, despite it's drawbacks. While I doubt I'll ever like the Satie pieces on this (they are rather lifeless), I can enjoy the Barber despite the performance's flaws (it's an overrated piece anyhow). Regardless, I just consider those extra tracks to the Vaughan Williams and Faure, which make this CD worth my money.

Upon a first listen, I was impressed with the orchestra's ability to feel the music so well. The Vaughn Williams is exceptional, the beginning seems to float in out of a mist and Slatkin takes great care to make sure the work dosen't rush. The reason for four stars and not five is because of the "Adagio". This work has great dynamic contrast, but it feels rushed. The strings, especially at the climax, make the work sound overdramatic. The same can be said for the "Irish Tune."
Telarc's usually brilliant sound lies flat and lifeless, and too quiet for playback volume.

In contrast to other Amazon reviewers, I found this CD less than completely satisfying. A few very brief observations:

1. Significant pitch problems can be heard in the strings on the Barber Adagio. Passages that should shimmer instead grate on the ears.

2. The Satie selections are particularly flat and lifeless, as though Mr. Slatkin felt the need to create a "soothing" sound rather than one that adequately captures the playful smile always peeking out of Satie's music.

3. The gorgeous harmonies and inner passages in the Grainger Tune from County Derry were given short shrift in favor of swoopy dynamics.

4. Throughout the disc the playing seemed tentative, in some instances almost hesitant.

In summary, a CD that can provide very pleasant background music but doesn't stand the test of close, critical listening.

This is one of my favorite CDs. Being a cellist and particularly susceptible to melancholy music anyway, this CD is like catnip to me. I've performed the Tallis Fantasia and bought and listened to numerous performances of it- including the Penguin Guide's top recommendation- but no performance I've ever heard comes anywhere close to this one in terms of ensemble playing, musical conviction and overall impact.

The more Slatkin/St. Louis recordings I hear, the more impressed I am with how well this orchestra plays together. I can only compare them to Chanticleer; they breathe together, listen constantly, weave their lines in and out with sensitivity and precision, start and stop together, and their timing is impeccable. In a piece like the Tallis Fantasia, which in lesser hands can easily degenerate into blurred lines and confusing-sounding "busywork" the ability to play together- really together- is indispensable. And what they do here is stunning.

I actually found this CD when looking for their performance of Londonderry Air (Danny Boy), which I had heard on the radio. When I found that piece on this CD, accompanied by other truly moving performances, I was ecstatic. This CD will hold a place of honor in my collection for a long, long time.

In the 80s, I was pretty much a rock-n-roll fan. I am a rock and jazz drummer, but one day, one of my friends said that a musician needed a well-rounded appreciation for all music: including classical. I forget the name of the music magazine, but it had a list of the most beautiful classical CDs, and number one was Slatkin's direction of songs by Vaughn Williams, Thomas Tallis, Barber's Adagio for Strings, Granger's Danny Boy, Satie's lovely Gymnopedies 1 and 2, and Faure's Pavane, On Telarc.

I was hooked from the beginning. I always thought of classical as the 1812 Overture and Beethoven's Fifth, but these songs were celestial. Every single selection! And Telarc Digital? These are the guys that put warnings on CDs: warning us to watch the bass settings because the reproduction might ruin those speakers. Fantastic sound!

If you've never liked classical, try this CD. It just might change your musical life forever.

I purchased this album (first on cassette then on CD) at the beginning of my interest in classical music. This collection is uniformly dramatic and, with one exception, unforgetable.

Vaughn Williams' Fantasia is a beautiful, sweeping rush of of sound and silence. It is by far the longest track on the album, and not something to put on for gentle background music, as the piece moves from piano to forte.

Ironically, Satie's two pieces (written for piano, arranged for strings by Debussey) are described as "wallpaper music", in that they are meant to be heard as much as wallpaper is meant to be seen. Still, the first of the two Gymnopedie is sweet and sad, and the second is a little more sophisticated and aware. Note: I do think that the tracks are mislabeled on the CD; I checked the sheet music for Gymnopedies #1 and #3, and they did not correspond to the numbers on this albumn.

Despite its use in movies, I had never heard Barber's Adagio for Strings until this album, and it brought me to tears. I will argue to anyone who cares to listen that this is the finest recording (at least, that I have yet encountered). It is slightly less adagio than many, but other recordings do not have the courage to push forward the dissonance that drives the piece. When it builds and builds to the climax, and then holds there, it rips your heart out. Slatkin is a fantastic showman, and gets every bit of the drama out of this piece. Absolutely love it.

Faure's Pavenne is a nice antidote to the operatic emotion of the Adagio. A little cynical, a little jaded, but still there is beauty in the world.

Unfortunately for me, the "Danny Boy" interpritation sticks out like a particularly sore thumb. While every piece on this CD is emotional, this one feels manipulative. It doesn't have the complexity of any of the previous pieces. More than any of the others, it sounds like a movie score, written and performed to punch up the emotion of a scene. Not surprisingly, I usually skip this one.

This is a very lush recording. Absolutely gorgeous music performed by the St. Louis Symphony when it was at its peak under the baton of Maestro Slatkin. The strings have never sounded better!

This CD would make a good gift choice: the compositions are varied, listener-friendly, short, and have a pretty high familiarity quotient (hard to imagine anyone who has heard at least one of these piece before). Radio on a CD.

The St Louis Symphony under Slatkin sounds good, and the Telarc engineers did a good job of recording.