Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains [Import]

Alan Opie (Performer), Bryn Terfel (Performer), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Composer), Matthew Best (Conductor), London Sinfonia (Orchestra), City of London Sinfonia (Orchestra), John Scott (Performer), Roger Judd (Performer), Lynne Dawson (Performer), Linda Kitchen (Performer), John Mark Ainsley (Performer), Adrian Thompson (Performer), John Bowen (Performer), Mark Ainley (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Alan Opie, Bryn Terfel, John Scott, Roger Judd, Lynne Dawson, et al.
• Orchestra: London Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia
• Conductor: Matthew Best
• Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Audio CD (November 19, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000002ZQR
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,768 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. A Song Of Thanksgiving

2. Three Choral Hymns: Easter Hymn

3. Three Choral Hymns: Christmas Hymn

4. Three Choral Hymns: Whitsunday Hymn

5. Magnificat

6. The Shepherds Of The Delectable Mountains

7. The Hundredth Psalm

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glorious, March 23, 2001

By 

Chris Johnson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (Audio CD)

Vaughn Williams' "A Song of Thanksgiving" is the greatest piece of music ever written that almost no one has heard. The version here, with John Gielgud doing the spoken parts, is so powerfully beautiful it is almost frightening. That's the best description I can come up with. Everything else on this CD is also wonderful and the sound quality is extraordinary.

Buy this now.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music, November 6, 2004

By 

Paul E. Stroble (Akron, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (Audio CD)

These pieces are surely among RVW's most beautiful music. As Chris Johnson writes, "Song of Thanksgiving" is powerful and beautiful, and so is "The 100th Psalm." "Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains" is as lovely as the corresponding sequence in RVW's opera "Pilgrim's Progress" but the finale in the Eternal City is more beautifully realized. I turn to this CD again and again!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo, especially for the "Song of Thanksgving", April 3, 2007

By 

R. Evans (Montgomery AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vaughan Williams: The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains (Audio CD)

I have to agree with Chris Johnson's description of the "Song of Thanksgiving" as "the greatest piece of music ever written that almost no one has heard." This is a piece that should be performed much more often, although it is hard to imagine a speaker better suited to the piece than the late Sir John Gielgud, whose own voice in this recording is itself a musical instrument. (The speaker in the only other recording I have heard is not nearly as good, although that recording has the virtue of bringing out the sound of the organ to grand and glorious effect.) If there is one tiny flaw in the present recording of the "Song," it is in the soprano's pronunciation of the very last syllable she sings (which is also the very last syllable of the whole piece), which seems to lag a bit. Otherwise, this is an absolutely first-rate performance of a very moving piece.

By the way, another unjustly neglected piece by Vaughan Williams is his "Pilgrim Pavement," which is available on a recording of the venerable fifth symphony. It is another piece that should be much more widely performed and recorded.