Another Dynamite Collection of Vaughan Williams

Here, from Boult and Willcocks.

I struggled with Vaughan Williams' cantata Sancta Civitas the first time I heard it from Hickox on EMI (BLOG); and that was despite the presence of Bryn Terfel and Yvonne Kenny.

I can't say I am much closer to the work, but having the redoubtable baritone John Shirley-Quirk and Sir David Willcocks on hand doesn't hurt me to try again. Thus I also  really like this performance of the Five Mystical Songs, for Shirley-Quirk is a favorite soloist of mine.

I have never warmed to Toward the Unknown Region either, despite rolling in a grand style akin to A Sea Symphony. Like Sancta Civitas, it wanders more than it gets to the point, here in older sound under Sir Adrian Boult. Regardless, these are great performances across the board.

A review from 2023

An unusual trilogy of choral/orchestral music from British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. In my opinion, this would not be a place to begin with VW, but it is very much a wonderful place to continue learning about the many facets of the composer.

Towards the Unknown Region continues the Walt Whitman texts wonderfully promulgated in RVW’s A Sea Symphony. I usually find the 12-minute work bloated and wandering, but once Boult lets rip in the last half, he has me. The sound could be better; it seems to have been mastered at a much lower level with not as wide definition as the rest of this recording.

The 20-minute Five Mystical Songs are a staple for baritones. Luckily in John Shirley-Quirk, we have the preeminent UK baritone of the last half of the 20th Century; he really puts himself into the passion of this sacred poetry. The songs are each beautifully portrayed with the ECO on hand, and I like the fuller aspect of the choral/orchestral version used here, although the King’s College Choir uses boy trebles.

Sancta Civitas is a tougher nut to pin down. 30 minutes without break, and a thick religious text attached to it, much of the music wanders around mysteriously, occasionally erupting into joyous ecstasies. Of the three major recordings, the late 60's Sir David Willcocks here, a 90's Richard Hickox on EMI, and a 2000's David Hill on Naxos, who can turn aside the lively relationship of The Bach Choir with Willcocks, alongside soloists Shirley-Quirk and Partridge. Only the distant boy chorus is sonically odd, but the rest is captured vigorously.

Each of these works were reissued many times over, some remastered. Sancta Civitas reappeared with RVW’s Oxford Elegy on EMI’s British Composers Series, as did Boult’s Toward the Unknown Region, also on EMI. John Shirley-Quirk’s very popular recording of Five Mystical Songs was issued with other choral music from Holst and Finzi on EMI, and perhaps best of all, on a 5CD collection of RVW choral music now on Warner.

While I wouldn’t recommend Vaughan Williams neophytes to begin here, there is much to enjoy once RVW’s idiom is fully digested. The sound in the Willcocks-led works are full and mighty, if only a little agéd in comparison to Hickox; only the single Boult offering could use some sonic tinkering, perhaps later remastered elsewhere(?).

 

 

 

 

 

Work
Sancta Civitas (31.17)
Five Mystical Songs (19.03)
Toward the Unknown Region (12.09)

Soloists
Ian Partridge, tenor
John Shirley-Quirk, baritone

Ensembles
The Bach Choir
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
London Philharmonic Choir

London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
English Chamber Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
    Sir David Willcocks, conductor

Label: EMI
Year: 1968-74; 1989
Timing: 62.37

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another collection of orchestrated choral and vocal music from EMI.

I am not as wild about the programming here, but these are pieces I am working on appreciating more.

I don't mind, as Willcocks and Shirley-Quirk are personal favorites.