It's a Tough Life by the Sea

 

Settle in for a dreary tale.

I don't think I quite expected something like this from Vaughan Williams. After all, he is the uplifting folk song composer, albeit peaceful and divine... right?

Well, if you want a bit of operatic modernism from the composer, here he squeezes a tale of family and death into 30 minutes. Spoiler alert: the late Benjamin Luxon doesn't return.

The singing is excellent, as is the whole production, but if you are not prepared, Riders to the Sea can take you by storm, as it did me!

Paired with it is the brief and lightweight vocal triptych Merciless Beauty and the sexually-charged choral cantata Epithalamion. Tenor Philip Langridge does wonders with the former short work, while Sir David Willcocks dutifully champions the latter, although I am not sure if I am sold on that work as a whole.

A review from 2023

British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is so much more than the pastoral, agrarian sound he is so often associated with. Here, two rare thirty minute works - the one-act opera Riders to the Sea and the cantata Epithalamion, offer primary interest.

For me, it is the wedding cantata Epithalamion that holds the most interest. The text is unusually candid regarding a newlywed couple’s wedding night, putting the work in line with Orff’s Trionfo di Afrodite and Stravinsky’s Les Noches. The feature of piano and flute aside chorus and baritone soloist show VW as an innovative orchestrator.

Conversely, Riders to the Sea is tragic with a capital T. Evoking the life along the harsh seaside, hope is dim and far away amongst these dejected female characters. An all-star cast of Norma Burrowes, Margaret Price, and Helen Watts conveys the family’s despair and loss pointedly. A brief appearance from Benjamin Luxon adds to the work, and RVW saves the finest of his music for the final, longest track.

As filler, and barely more than five minutes, are three songs for tenor and string trio. I like Philip Langridge’s open lyric tenor tone, here supported by members of the Endellion String Quartet. More hailed is Ian Partridge’s similar lyric tenor on EMI, and it may be preferred as a VW tenor recital.

A doozy of a recording, led by Sir David Willcocks and Meredith Davies, champions of British orchestral and choral music. The harrowing Riders to the Sea is almost too much for me to revisit often, but everything here is so rarely recorded, and hardly as well done as it is here, that there is very little left wanting.

 

 

 

 

Work
Riders to the Sea (36.23)
Merciless Beauty (6.28)
Epithalamion (32.17)

Soloists
Norma Burrowes, soprano
Margaret Price, soprano
Helen Watts, contralto
Philip Langridge, tenor
Benjamin Luxon, baritone
Stephen Roberts, baritone

Jonathan Snowden, flute
Howard Shelley, piano

Ensembles
Ambrosian Singers
The Bach Choir
Endellion String Quartet

Orchestra Nova of London
    Meredith Davies, conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
    Sir David Willcocks, conductor

Label: EMI
Year: 1971-87; 1993
Timing: 75.20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These same performances appear with different combinations of pairings on EMI elsewhere, but this is my favorite program, even if it is an odd one.

I am still not certain regarding the Wedding-Night cantata Epithalamion, but the tragedy of Riders to the Sea is a hands-down winner.