Customer Reviews

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

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If you have never heard "A Sea Symphony", you must do so with all alacrity. When you do, purchase this album. Conductor, Andrew Davis balances all of the lush and powerful elements; the chorus, orchesta and soloists in a dynamic and precise rendition of the symphony. He brings to the fore, the immensity of the brass, the succulent delicacy of the chorus and luxuriance of the orchestra, all in their turns. The soloists have the power to cut through and be heard clearly. I have heard many renditions, live and recorded, of this work and this is one of the very best.

Like the Berlioz Requiem, Vaughan Williams' vast "A sea Symphony" tests the limits of recorded sound. It requires delicacy to caputre the soft singing of the solo voices but at the same time must encompass a large chorus whose words need to be heard, since it was Walt Whitman's poetry that inspired the composer. This Teldec recording sueeds on all counts. Compared even to the acclaimed Telarc account from Atlanta under Spano, you can hear mroe enunciation from all the singers, and orchestral impact is fully dynamic. As a plus, Thomas Hampson is the only world-class baritone to undertake the baritone solo, along with Thomas Allen, and he is matched by the excellent Amanda Roocroft. Andrew Davis perhaps doesn't commit himself as fully to the score's drama as Spano or Adrian Boult, but his tighter control pays off in clarity -- it's easy to feel swamped by the score's ambitiousness ad miss Vaughan Wiliams' essentially folk-song based idion, which calls for simplicty and sincerity.

In all, a surprising find from a V-W cycle that had its ups and downs.