# SS 18.07.15 - Vaughan Williams #4



## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening! 
*
*For your listening pleasure this weekend:

*Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)*

Symphony #4 in F minor

1. Allegro
2. Andante moderato
3. Scherzo: allegro molto
4. Finale con epilogo fugato: allegro molto

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Been a little while since I've heard this one. Looking forward to hearing it again. I usually go with Boult but I think I'll go with this one:

View attachment 72511


Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Previn/London SO. I love this CD.

One of the more memorable beginnings in the symphonic repertoire, I think.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I'll be goin' for glorious mono!










NBC Symphony Orchestra u. Leopold Stokowski (Cala)

/ptr


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Boult/London Philharmonic


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## D Smith (Sep 13, 2014)

I listened to Haitink do this recently so it will be Bernstein/NYP here as well.


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## fjf (Nov 4, 2014)

Mahlerian said:


> Boult/London Philharmonic


Boy, that's some moustache!.


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

I'll be listening to Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vernon Handley with Colin Chambers on the flute.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

View attachment 72513


It's been a while, indeed.


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> Boult/London Philharmonic


Boult was the first to conduct this symphony, but with BBC Symphony Orchestra.


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

*Let the professionals handle it.*

I trust Colin Davis with British music like I trust Karajan... what? Just generally trust him everywhere.

Onward to the album:


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## leroy (Nov 23, 2014)

Can anyone recommend an youtube or other online version that is worth listening to?


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

leroy said:


> Can anyone recommend an youtube or other online version that is worth listening to?


Well as its BBC Proms season go with


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'll go for this one from the Davis complete symphonies set


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I shall listen to this version by the ever reliable Vernon Handley with the Royal Liverpool Phil


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## Jeff W (Jan 20, 2014)

Usually go with Haitink and Boult for my Vaughn Williams fix but I'm going to try something new this weekend:









Via Apple Music, Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

One of my favourites from VW. Listening to a recent release, LPO/Ryan Wigglesworth.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Ditto. No. 4 recorded 1969. No info on sound engineer, or recording venue. :tiphat:

View attachment 72554


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Going with Boult and the London Phil. Looking forward to this, not that familiar with Vaughan Williams except for Fantasia on a Theme of TT and The Lark Ascending.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Boult from the stereo cycle. I didn't have time yesterday but will listen to it later on. It's also one of my favourite VW symphonies.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

This is the version I've had in my library since the early days of CDs, when I spent a couple of years heavily into RVW's orchestral works. I really enjoyed hearing this again today (a bit delayed because we've had visitors for the weekend). The 1968 EMI sound is excellent.


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## GKC (Jun 2, 2011)

I just checked my RVW stash, and I have every symphony except the fourth. I don't think I've ever heard it! Lord have mercy (Kyrie...). I recall a review that said it was his most violent symphony. What am I in for? I need to get an LP and a CD of this. I have Bryden Thompson, Previn, Boult, Hickox for the others so I'll look for them.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

GKC said:


> I just checked my RVW stash, and I have every symphony except the fourth. *I don't think I've ever heard it! Lord have mercy *(Kyrie...). I recall a review that said it was his most violent symphony. What am I in for? I need to get an LP and a CD of this. I have Bryden Thompson, Previn, Boult, Hickox for the others so I'll look for them.


Please. Rush out and get a copy now. NOW!

The VW Fourth has long been a favorite of mine among a composer's symphonies where I cherish every one to a rather high degree.

I'll go with VW's own recording of the work. Vaughan Williams was aged sixty-five when he conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in this recording in 1937.









Here's what Dan Davis says of the work from a review at Amazon.com:

Vaughan Williams's 1937 recording of his Fourth Symphony is more than a document of a great composer conducting his own music. It's a terrific performance, bristling with fiery tension like no other in the catalogue. He sets a torrid pace for a work often thought of as encompassing feelings of dread in a Europe barreling toward another World War. It's a tough, uncompromising work, of which the composer himself said: "I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant." The BBC Symphony plays its collective heart out for him; an air of special occasion suffuses the disc. The composer-conductor leads a slow movement notable for the way he achieves note-to-note tension, and its enigmatic closing flute solo is movingly done. 

I also have the VW Fourth conducted by the composer on a KOCH International Classics disc: 3-7018-2 H1, where it is coupled with a performance of Holst conducting his _Planets_ Suite. Stellar stuff!

Robert Matthew-Walker of International Record Review, April 2007, had this to say of that disc's VW Fourth: "... the CD [presents] the overwhelming performance of Vaughan Williams's Fourth Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer in 1937, which has never been equalled, let alone surpassed."

That, of course, is a matter of opinion. But it should certainly whet your appetites to hear VW perform his own symphony. In any case, that's how I'll take on the Fourth in my next listen.


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## GKC (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks Sonnet CLV; will consider these. Is that Barbiolli (sp.) in that picture with RVW?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

GKC said:


> Thanks Sonnet CLV; will consider these. Is that Barbiolli (sp.) in that picture with RVW?


Found this through a Google images search:









And this album cover, too:









One might consider Barbirolli definitive with RVW. At the very least, they obviously communicated with one another.


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