Get a Job!

 

Handley gets the job done, for sure.

Aside from maybe Sir Adrian Boult, Handley with the LPO is easily the finest recordings of RVW's ballet Job. Really, they do quite fine in Dives and Lazarus as well.

Only the Tallis Fantasia is saddled with grainy sonics. I know Handley's LPO cycle of Vaughan Williams' symphonies were sometimes called out for their less-than-adequate sound, but this is most unfortunate. Not that 15 minutes spoils an 80 minutes recording...

 

 A review from 2022

EMI's Classics For Pleasure collects three performances from 1973-1985 of Vaughan Williams music from Vernon Handley and the London PO. This particular recording was also included in the box set of Handley's RVW symphony cycle, also on CFP.

Job, the largest work on this recording at 48 minutes in length, is essentially a 9 scene ballet, unusual in its biblical roots. There is a lot of quality music here, with quite a bit of variety too. The Satan portions tend to be more cinematic and wry, while the dances reach towards RVW’s folksy leanings musically.

I remember feeling ambivalent over Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’ from Richard Hickox’s recording on Chandos, paired with VW’s wonderful cantata Five Tudor Portraits. I was rather taken with Handley’s reading though, who seem to give the work enough fundamentalist breadth and weight to make a hearty impression on the music. The LPO strings sound great too!

I wish the sound were better in the Tallis Fantasia though, for I sense Handley and the LPO are really sending this music home with grandness. But alas, it is soddened with a gritty, wiry sound that is most unappealing. Sonically, it has problems in the first minute or so with a heavily-laden diesel truck taking off, but the climaxes are rough, and it could generally use a cleanup. It is a work, too, that needs not yearn for more recordings, as it is well represented, usually as filler.

But the good news is that this is a very fine Job. The finest on record is perhaps Boult on Everest or on EMI, Wordsworth on Collins or the reissue on Alto, and a newish outing from Mark Elder on Hallé. The rest of the music can be found on various collections, so unless your require this exact program, there is plenty out there.

Still, this is a nice recording, only let down by some harsh sound on the Tallis Fantasia. Otherwise, a well-done Job and Dives and Lazarus Variations.

 

 

 

Works
Job (48.17)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (16.48)
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (11.25)

Ensembles
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vernon Handley, conductor

Label: EMI / Warner / CFP
Year: 1974-84; 1995; 2002; 
Timing: 76.52

 

 

 

Aside from gravelly sonics during the Tallis Fantasia, this recording should be prized for an excellent Job.