Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: ARIADNE 5016
Release: 2022
Size: 361 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
The Wasps – Aristophanic Suite (Live)
01. I. Overture. Allegro vivace
Symphony No. 6 in E minor (Live)
02. I. Allegro
03. II. Moderato
04. III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
05. IV. Epilogue. Moderato
Symphony No. 9 in E minor (Live)
06. I. Moderato maestoso
07. II. Andante sostenuto
08. III. Scherzo. Andante pesante
09. IV. Andante tranquillo
SOMM celebrates the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth with definitive, newly remastered performances by Lani Spahr of his ever-popular The Wasps Overture and two symphonies – the startling Sixth and, in its world premiere performance, the valedictorian Ninth – with Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As Simon Heffer comments in his authoritative booklet notes, this major new release is notable for containing historical performances (from 1957, 1958 and 1964), for Spahr’s meticulous restorations, and for offering “a clear indication of the genius of” Sargent.
From the 1957 BBC Proms, The Wasps Overture blends Ravelian influences with English folk songs to produce a vivaciously genial impression of RVW at his most distinctively infectious. Recorded in 1964 and again for the BBC Proms, the Sixth Symphony – a “war symphony” in all but name – is, as Heffer notes, “rich in orchestral experiment, more innovative than perhaps any other work in the composer’s canon, and whose enigmas and mysteries still remain to be deciphered”.
RVW’s final, Ninth Symphony, “a work of beauty and grandeur, and a magisterial signing off”, says Heffer, is heard here in splendidly remastered audio in its very first performance in April 1958, four months before the composer’s death, by Sargent and the RPO.