Customer Reviews

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5; Tallis Fantasia

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

 

 

This 5th is often regarded as RVW's symphonic masterpiece. The 9 symphonies are so wonderfully varied and so uniformly top-quality that's really impossible for me to pick up just one, but the 5th is surely one of the best and the most spiritually searching. The composer quotes some themes from religious works and blends them seamlessly in the flow of his own inspiration. The character of the music is essentially reflective and the orchestration, based mainly on the strings, is wonderfully rich yet transparent. Still, RVW was anything but a simple, one-sided man, and even here there's a hint of unease, a subterranean flow of anguish that always suggested me the troubled search for the Answer, rather than the affirmation of a man that already found it. Thinking about this, the final climax sounds even more jubilant and musically effective. Previn, one of the best interpreters of British music, gives us a deeply-felt, slowly paced, ravishingly played account of this work. Maybe the disturbing elements are not so apparent here (if you want that, listen to Haitink's equally refined but cooler version - I love them both), but as a perfectly idiomatic, lovingly respectful view of this work, this is the best modern recording that I know. (...) Previn's kind of approach is even more effective with the Tallis Fantasia, an endlessly fascinating piece indeed which receives a first-rate interpretation. (On my list , though, it has been displaced by the incredible 1975 Stokowski recording with this same orchestra- see review) The sound of a RPO on top-form is very well captured by Telarc, with none of the engineering problems that, to my ears, marred Previn's digital "London".

I own around twelve versions of Vaughan Williams' "Symphony No. 5." I have been disappointed with a few of them like Vernon Handley's (RLPO/EMI) and Andre Previn's (LSO/RCA) first recording of it where the performance was good, but the audio quality was horrible. This Previn/RPO reading on Telarc is a whole new animal altogether. Finally, we can hear Previn's thoughts on this symphony in great audio and this is an amazing reading. It's the best I've heard. Not very often do you have a combination of great audio and performance, but this one really took me by surprise.

I'm particularly moved by the "Romanza (Lento)" section, which all RVW fans know like the back of their hands. The Royal Philharmonic's strings are lush, the woodwinds soaring, it's a spectacle to behold. This is by far the best "Romanza" movement I've heard and it's also the longest lasting around 13 minutes. This, of course, is not to say the rest of the symphony isn't good, but the third movement is this symphony's best feature. I've never been too impressed with the first movement, it's good, but the "Scherzo" movement forward are pure sonic marvels.

The "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" also receives a great reading as well. Previn has turned in one of the best performances of his career here and who would've known? Highly recommended.

Those who are already in love with VW's symphonies already know, when it comes to the Fifth, what they like. This symphony is a dreamy pastorale caught between two agitated, disturbing works in the Fourth and Sixth. Did VW intend for the overtly nostalgic spiritualized Fifth to carry a hint of disturbane itself? Previn doesn't believe so--both of his readings are slow, languorous, and lush. The earlier RCA version has scrappy sound, which is too bad, because it is marginally more energetic than the Telarc remake with the Royal Phil, which boasts quite gorgeous sound. Also, the RCA has more interesting fillers than the too often paired Tallis Fantasia on Telarc.

I happened to hear Previn conduct the Fifth with the Boston Sym.--a rare occurence on this side of the Atlantic--and the audience was bored; the music didn't speak to them, and Previn's tempos over the years have gotten even slower. I think the Fifth needs more urgency, less dreaminess, and some sharp edges. You won't get that from Previn (or Haitink or Slatkin), but two old masters, Barbirolli and Boult, especially the latter, come through. Boult's EMI recording with the London Phil. has inner life and urgency, and I'd rate it the best performance I've ever heard.

P.S. Aug. 2009 - I happened to hear this CD again at a friend's house in London, and maybe its the ambience, but I feel I shortchanged Previn's reading. In terms of recorded sound and orchestral glow, this 1988 recording outshines his earlier VW Fifth on RCA. There's a nobility here that I didn't hear before, and many forceful touches that I now appreciate. Let's say four stars at the very least.

Aside from the 5th Symphony, this album includes V. William's "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" and it is a first rate performance. As a piece, the Fantasia alternates between quiet violin motifs in the Greek modes and rousing surges of the entire orchestra, echoing between each other to produce the feeling of a cathedral or the sort of transcendence that V. Williams saw in the English country-side. Both these elements are beautifully captured in this performance. The quiet Greek modes are mythic and hymnic in their intensity and almost make you ache; the surges of the orchestra truly soar without ever being bombastic.