# SS 23.05.15 - Vaughan Williams #5



## realdealblues

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 #5 in D Major

1. Preludio
2. Scherzo
3. Romanza
4. Passacaglia

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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

Haven't listened to Vaughan Williams in a month or two. Looking forward to spending a weekend relistening to this work. I'll be listening to:

View attachment 70022


Sir Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic Orchestra


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## elgar's ghost

I was a bit puzzled seeing a Saturday Symphonies thread for Brahms's 4th yesterday - I suppose that was an old one and I didn't notice the date.

Anyhow - Boult's later stereo account from the now old-ish EMI budget box:


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## D Smith

Another favourite work this week. I'll try Haitink whom I haven't listened to in a while.


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## brotagonist

D Smith said:


>


A composer that has not reached the stature of 'favourite'; however, I have this one. I'll give it a critical spin.


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## ptr

I'll go for one that I have acquired but not yet heard:










Hallé Orchestra u. Sir Mark Elder (Hallé Records)

/ptr


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## GreenMamba

On my short list of all time favorite symphonies.

I own Previn/LSO, but just for kicks, Hilger and Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt. Hilger also solos the tuba concerto on the disk.


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## Mahlerian

Andrew Davis conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra for BBC Music Magazine


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## AClockworkOrange

realdealblues said:


> Haven't listened to Vaughan Williams in a month or two. Looking forward to spending a weekend relistening to this work. I'll be listening to:
> 
> View attachment 70022
> 
> 
> Sir Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic Orchestra


Ditto for me


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## Skilmarilion

Would you believe, I have never heard this work. 

Via Haitink and the London Phil, tomorrow will be my redemption.


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## Marschallin Blair

Skilmarilion said:


> Would you believe, I have never heard this work.
> 
> Via Haitink and the London Phil, tomorrow will be my redemption.
> 
> View attachment 70035


_NEV-ER_?- Oh dear, dear, dear, dear, _DEAR_!

_;D_


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## Mika

Andrew Davis & BBC Symphony Orchestra


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## Jeff W

Make this one a double for me!









Bernard Haitink and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.









Alongside Haitink will be Adrian Boult's recording with the same orchestra.


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## Skilmarilion

Marschallin Blair said:


> _NEV-ER_?- Oh dear, dear, dear, dear, _DEAR_!
> 
> _;D_


I trust that, around these parts, we all have a case of "haven't gotten to that one just yet". ;-)

(although maybe not ptr ... he's probably heard everything, by everyone, multiple times )


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## Haydn man

I have had this version for many years
Vernon a Handley was a wonderful conductor of VW and I would recommend this performance


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## ptr

Skilmarilion said:


> (although maybe not ptr ... he's probably heard everything, by everyone, multiple times )


And if I haven't, it's not worth hearing anyway, he says chuckling his elbow! 

/ptr


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## Triplets

One of my favorite works. Either the Hickox or the Bryden Thompson Chandos recordings will do.


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## Becca

Haydn man said:


> View attachment 70041
> 
> 
> I have had this version for many years
> Vernon a Handley was a wonderful conductor of VW and I would recommend this performance


I absolutely agree. I had (and still have) the later Barbirolli recording which was my touchstone for this marvelous work until I heard the Handley


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## Vaneyes

*RVW*: Symphony 5, w. RLPO/Handley. Recorded Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, September 1986. Balance Engineer: Mike Clements.

View attachment 70045


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## SONNET CLV

Long a favorite symphony -- there is something about 5th symphonies, like 9th symphonies, that is special, possibly due to the overwhelming pressure put on composers by that feller named Beethoven -- the Vaughan Williams Fifth remains a high point in that composer's oeuvre, and it is probably the RVW symphony I turn to most often.

Oddly enough, I just yesterday located the Fifth symphony disc from my Bryden Thomson set (It had gone missing some while back) in one of my big Bach box sets. Don't know how it happened -- I probably took the disc out of the CD tray one Sunday while preparing to play a Bach Cantata and absent-mindedly set the RVW disc in the Bach box where it "got lost". -- In any case, I found it, played it, and gloriously enjoyed the symphony once again. A real winner of a work.










I must have some dozen copies of the Fifth, several in complete symphony sets, and I cannot recall a one of them that disappoints. So the Bryden Thomson with The London Symphony Orchestra serves quite well in appreciating this great music.

Not just for this weekend's listening, but for lifetime listening.


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## Triplets

This piece is one of my personal favorites. It's beautiful melodies are so throughly integrated into the structure of the work that when done properly one becomes unaware of bar lines, transitional passages, etc. I love RVW music but this would be the desert island piece if god forbid I could only fit one RVW work on to the mythical musical Noah's Ark


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## Triplets

SONNET CLV said:


> Long a favorite symphony -- there is something about 5th symphonies, like 9th symphonies, that is special, possibly due to the overwhelming pressure put on composers by that feller named Beethoven -- the Vaughan Williams Fifth remains a high point in that composer's oeuvre, and it is probably the RVW symphony I turn to most often.
> 
> Oddly enough, I just yesterday located the Fifth symphony disc from my Bryden Thomson set (It had gone missing some while back) in one of my big Bach box sets. Don't know how it happened -- I probably took the disc out of the CD tray one Sunday while preparing to play a Bach Cantata and absent-mindedly set the RVW disc in the Bach box where it "got lost". -- In any case, I found it, played it, and gloriously enjoyed the symphony once again. A real winner of a work.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I must have some dozen copies of the Fifth, several in complete symphony sets, and I cannot recall a one of them that disappoints. So the Bryden Thomson with The London Symphony Orchestra serves quite well in appreciating this great music.
> 
> Not just for this weekend's listening, but for lifetime listening.


 That Thomson recording has a big glorious resonant acoustic that enhances the feel of the work.


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## Haydn man

I have to agree with many of comments made about this weeks SS
Wonderful melodies within the whole work, I have really enjoyed acquainting myself with this once again


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## Avey

Other comments on this piece, from those who have never heard it (or once a long time ago)? I hear things so differently when I listen to this symphony now than I did when I first heard it. Of course, things got better and all the notes have grown on me to a considerable degree. From like "Yes, very good," to now "Well, OK, may be the finest thing RVW wrote."

Very hard to top the Lento and Passacaglia pairing in this work. Not only in his repertoire, but the century's. Maybe beyond.


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## Lord Lance

A classic.

Classic interpretation:


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## Skilmarilion

Avey said:


> Other comments on this piece, from those who have never heard it (or once a long time ago)? I hear things so differently when I listen to this symphony now than I did when I first heard it. Of course, things got better and all the notes have grown on me to a considerable degree. From like "Yes, very good," to now "Well, OK, may be the finest thing RVW wrote."
> 
> Very hard to top the Lento and Passacaglia pairing in this work. Not only in his repertoire, but the century's. Maybe beyond.


I'd like to hear this one a fair amount more before I can say anything of any worth on it.

But re: the _Romanza_, on first listening I was left almost bemused by its extraordinary beauty. That opening refrain in the strings which comes before the entry of the cor anglais, was enough to give me goosebumps.

15 seconds into a movement on first listening, that doesn't ever happen ... it's not *supposed* to, surely?


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## kanishknishar

it seems this 'ss' is a old activity of this forum........


i have a lot of catchin up to do....

for vaughan william's fifth i pick thomson's recording..... the best i have heard... matched by none.... so far atleast....


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## Steve Wright

RVW dedicated this symphony "without permission and with the sincerest flattery to Jean Sibelius, whose great example is worthy of imitation". 
Does anyone know how Sibelius took the compliment?
And how, er, Sibelian does this work sound, to you?


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## dsphipps100

I prefer the Hickox-LSO recording myself.


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## Dirge

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 5 (1943)
:: Koussevitzky/BSO [1947 radio broadcast/Guild]

Although the 5th Symphony is dedicated to Jean Sibelius and might be said to have a Sibelius-like scale and scope to it, I can't say that thoughts of Sibelius fill my head when listening to the work, even when conducted by a great Sibelius conductor such as Koussevitzky. Indeed, if I'm put to mind (if only occasionally and superficially) of another composer by this performance, it's Samuel Barber, as Koussevitzky's relatively unBritish, unpastoral, undaunted approach tends to underscore the modern in Vaughan Williams's Romantic-yet-modern sensibility and bring him close to Barber in this respect; besides, I've always sensed a thematic kinship of sorts between the two composers with respect to various long-breathed lyrical themes from their works of the '30s and '40s, and Koussevitzky's phrasing heightens that sense even more. The peculiar scherzo is an exception to all this, sounding more like Boris Blacher's _Concertante Musik_ (1937) or something by Paul Hindemith than anything by Barber. In any event, the work here comes across as less early-Century pastoral and more mid-Century modern than usual, and the BSO play it with a sovereign command and eloquence that soothes the savage beast in some sections (the final minutes of the Romanza have never sounded so ethereally beautiful as here) and evokes the power of the sea in others (certain passages of the final movement have a _Tintagel_-like Baxian quality about them), with teeming molecular energy and inner intensity underlying the beautiful sheen of the strings.

The 1947 broadcast sound is no great shakes, with a somewhat dull, generalized bottom end and not much top end, but the middle end is good enough to carry the sonic load and put the performance across. Solos are variously spotlit as they often are in old radio broadcasts, but they often come across like concertino members in a concerto grosso and add to the atmosphere rather than detract from it; besides, the solos are so well and so characterfully played that it's difficult to complain about them being too prominent.

My favorite alternative recording of the 5th is the even earlier one by Barbirolli and his Hallé Orchestra [HMV '44]-a very game and inspired/inspiring effort from the war-depleted and ragtag orchestra under its dedicated new director. If forced to choose a favorite modern/stereo recording, I'd probably go with Thomson and the LSO [Chandos '87]: a straightforward and unaffected yet beautifully phrased and atmospheric affair; it's also well-paced, without that slightly hurried undercurrent that undermines many Thomson-led performances. As much as I like Barbirolli/Hallé and Thomson/LSO, however, neither account resonates with me so wholly and sympathetically as Koussevitzky/BSO does.


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## Alfacharger

Steve Wright said:


> RVW dedicated this symphony "without permission and with the sincerest flattery to Jean Sibelius, whose great example is worthy of imitation".
> Does anyone know how Sibelius took the compliment?
> And how, er, Sibelian does this work sound, to you?


I feel the Sibelius 6th inhabits the same sound world as RVWs 5th.

This is a quote I found about Sibelius reaction to the symphony and the dedication.

"Sir Adrian Boult subsequently secured permission from Sibelius, who wrote: "I heard Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams' new Symphony in Stockholm under the excellent leadership of Malcolm Sargent… This Symphony is a marvellous work… the dedication made me feel proud and grateful… I wonder if Dr Williams has any idea of the pleasure he has given me?" - Quoted in Music and Friends, pp. 143-44"

http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5_...lliams,_Ralph)


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