Repertoire: The BEST Vaughan-Willliams Tallis Fantasia
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2020
- Always a popular subject for recording, especially by British artists, the glorious Tallis Fantasia is very hard to ruin, although it can be played dully. Here are the most distinctive and rewarding versions on disc, bar none.
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Absolutely agree with you on the Barbiroli recording....love it!
I’ve heard many takes on this wonderful piece and my favorite remains Eugene Ormandy.
It CAN be ruined! We played it in All-State Orchestra in Virginia way back in 1970 or 1971. I can verify that it was thoroughly ruined that day! Aside from that, this is possibly my second favorite composition of all time.
I have that Barbirolli, English Music for Strings. The repertoire in this recording, has never been bettered.
Definitely looking for more Vaughan-Williams stuff from you, Symphony by Symphony
I remember the 8th being my favourite, though it wasn't given a name like some others.
@@starry2006 I think Thomson's 8th is underrated. It's my favourite of his cycle. (It's not on youtube, by the way)
Thanks for this great selection! My elder sister's record collection introduced me to the Tallis fantasia when I was in my low teens (mid-1960s), and it remains my regular go-to when I need a dose of Passion! (c) in your sense. I've loved many versions of it over the years, but I think I found my favorite in the one recorded by William Boughton with the English String Orchestra in 1981 (on Nimbus). Among other things, it was the first recording of the Fantasia I'd heard in which the small 9-piece ensemble actually reproduced the sound of a pipe organ.
I love your enthusiasm and great assessment of these works. Thanks for what you do!
Thanks for highlighting the Silvestri recording, which I had to find on RUclips. Wow, just beautiful. So I bought the Silvestri box, which is really wonderful and often in great sound. Thanks for mentioning Silvestri!
Whatever recording you get, you must hear it live at least once. I heard Donald Runnicles conduct the Philidelphia Orchestra in this, and finally "got" the spatial element of the various ensembles. He had "Orchestra II" across the back of the stage, where the percussion would be. The string quartet had the principals in regular position, but sitting a little closer out front and closer together. The effect was "fantastic" as it should be. Oh, and I once heard a student soprano announce that she was going to sing, "When I am laid by Henry Purcell".
I was able to stream the Silvestri Tallis Fantasy and it was like listening to it for the first time. I swear I heard things I've never heard before in other recordings, and like you said, they're all (most of them anyway) pretty good. Loved hearing your comparisons, and boy, were you spot on with this one.
With each new video I try to guess which recording is your favorite. I finally nailed it with this one! Thank you for all your informative and entertaining videos and for introducing me to some composers I was unaware of, like Klami, Koechin, and Shapero. I'm on a major Josef Suk journey now thanks to you. What amazing music!
Yay, thank you!
Thank you so much for this! My father first played this to me when I was 11. It was the old 76 Boult standard which seems to have stuck to me like a melodic limpet ever since 😂. I am now listening to all these, one each day for a week. I'm only one day in and already the Von Karajan has me in tears of joy!!
Thanks for the Silvestri recommendation. I found it on disk ten of a thirty disk EMI Vaughn Williams 2008 compilation that I probably never would have played. One of the great performances of string music committed to disk.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Silvestri! I'd never heard the recording before, but bought it as a download and was blown away. Beautiful.
Try his Bournemouth S O Scheherazade. Very exciting and charismatic.
@@bannan61 Will do :)
Everything in that box is amazing. Such a superb conductor and, like so many great artists, taken too soon. He had so much more to give
The Silvestri box is a must have. A superb In the South and Scheherazade plus the Tallis Fantasia.
And everything else in it!
Please please please do a talk about the Silvestri box! It is amazing. Others need to know! Spread the word!
Anyway... I was smiling from ear to ear when you said Silvestri's was number one. It truly is. Unparalleled is absolutely right!
Thank you for very interesting and enthusiastic talk - I'll look out for the Canning. You mentioned superb string playing in Ormandy's version. There is another performance I've heard where the string playing struck me as way beyond what we usually hear in UK but unfortunately it has never been commercially issued. A wonderful interpretation too. It is by the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Karel Ančerl - they gave a few performances of the work in UK and Czechoslovakia around 1962. It was broadcast by BBC and Prague Radio apparently have a tape - it really should be issued and I think you would like it. If you could imagine the kind of playing you get in Ančerl's Glag Mass or Taras transferred to Tallis Fantasia that'll give an idea.
Greetings, Dave. I first heard the Tallis Fantasy in 1949 or 1950 when Dad bought it as a 12-inch LP recording. I was about fifteen and this soon became one of my favourite pieces of classical music. Toscanini, Stokowsky and Yehudi Menuhin were all heard on our big Stromberg-Carlson AM radio’s CBC station and our record collection took a giant step forward around 1948 when my father purchased a three-speed record player that, in addition to our old 78rpms, could play the new 10 and 12-inch Columbia 33rpm LP records and the 7-inch 45rpm red vinyl RCA Red Seal classical recordings. And now? I have several thousand pieces of music, including the Barbirolli and Silvestri that you love as well as an Andrew Davis BBC Tallis. However, my go-to Tallis is a 14:54 version by, I believe, the U.S. Army’s “Pershing's Own” Strings. I remember I got it some years back as an OGG file that I found in a Wikipedia article on the Tallis Fantasy. It may not have the polish of the adore-mentionned maestros but it has a presence, an immediacy which transports me to some superior level that I am unable to define. My favorite portion starts around 10:30 and it cascades over and over gracefully until the music starts its familiar fade, gradually diminishing, the sound getting farther and farther away, with hauntingly mysterious, far side of the woods-like echoes that end, as we know but, fortunately, immediately gets a new life with a glorious, almost divine contrapuntal melody around the 12 minute mark that lasts almost a minute before it loses its extra ordinariness and carries us to the end, as all good things must end.
If I could own only one piece of music, this U.S. Army Band’s Tallis Fantasy would be it. Good day!
Dug out ASD 2370 as I knew I had a copy listed somewhere. Very fine. Thanks, David.
Thank you for this summary. It comes as I had cleaned and played back my Stokowski Tallis Fantasia LP a few weeks ago. And then I kept playing it, 3 more times since then. Just shows how hard it is to put down very good recordings, I guess
I learned my Tallis Fantasia from another underrated sleeper recording by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony Orchestra on Vanguard. After getting many others like Karajan, Barbirolli, Ormandy, Haitink I still rate it very highly. Oh... and Vernon Handley too, he seems to be always at home in the "English Renaissance" (of Late Romantics of course) . Thanks for the Mitropoulos and Silvestri recommendations I'll give those a chance for sure.
Please can you review RVW Symphony 5 and London Symphony.... Loving your channel... Best wishes from England... Glad to hear some great reviews of English music without the snobbishness prevalent in some English reviewers.... Yes! English music DOES travel well and non English orchestras can add a really new dimension to how English music sounds.... Many thanks David!
Noted! You're welcome.
Thank you very much for making this video! I about wore out a CD of one of the Sir Neville Marriner recordings (along with Fantasia on Greensleeves, The Lark Ascending, and Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus') as a kid-- it colors that whole era for me-- and to find out that you consider that to be a lesser recording is very exciting! I've never really given another recording an honest try (partly from nostalgia), but if a just-okay recording could do all that, what are the other recordings up to??
😊I forgot to mention, in regards to Vernon Handley, was that his recording of the Vaughan-Williams TALLIS FANTASIA was on the very first CD I ever had. It was a Xmas gift & I had just purchased my first CD player. Handley‘s is also a wonderful performance which I still have among many additional recordings. The gift was given specifically since the giver knew how much the TALLIS FANTASIA meant to me. Especially appropriate to have this as my very first CD well over 30 years ago now. As I mentioned on an earlier comment the TALLIS FANTASIA of Vaughan-Williams has been with me for over 50 years & my first LP, which I also still have for sentimental reasons is conducted by Sir John Barbirolli a great friend & a definitive interpreter of VW‘s music. No other music means as much to me as this work & since then it has been a part of countless & varied personal experiences.
Very Interesting. I tend to judge all FOATOTT by Boult's 1976 recording. I find it profoundly moving, graceful and powerful.
Agree with the Silvestri, absolutely. Winchester Cathedral, in 1967, if I'm not mistaken, with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Most people go for the Tallis or the Lark when it comes to RVW, but I think Symphony No.5 is his greatest work. Would love a video from David on that.
I agree with you on the 5th symphony. It's a very special work, it really speaks to me, and that's all I can say really because I can't express why I feel this work so deeply. I actually have to control my desire to listen to it too frequently; I don't want it to lose its magic.
Yeah RVW5 is amazing. His entire symphonies cycle is outrageous really. For me he is with Mahler, Sibelius, Shostakovich, and Lutoslawski for my fav cycles.
I saw the Fifth live last week!
Yes Yes Yes Symphony 5.The Romanza section brings me to tears.
Just listened to the Mitropolous. Goodness gracious!
Silvestri’s version is great, but Barbirolli’s is still my favorite, the perfect combination of nobility and passion. He never made a finer recording.
Thank you for this list! I agree about Neville Marriner, I admire the Barbirolli, and I look forward to tracking down the Silvestri and listening to it.
My favorite for decades has been Bryden Thomson with the LSO on Chandos, but I would accept that it may not be in any way exceptional other than having the “Chandos sound.”
I first heard the Fantasia when it was used as the soundtrack to an unconvincing "art film" shown on the Detroit PBS station early one morning before work and while I was still half asleep. The intense music, uncredited, was the only thing memorable about the film. I was very pleased when much later I chanced on the Mitropolous recording, which I suspect was the one used on the soundtrack. It remains my "imprint" recording and I am thankful it made Mr. Hurwitz's list.
Rocking my world Dave. Looking for good advice to extend my music collection, thank you. Ordered the Jarvi Shostakovich 4. Can rec Ralfy if yr after good malt whisky!
Another great talk - thank you! Those are my top five too, out of the thirty or so that I hoard. Silvestri absolutely at the top! It would be great to hear you do some VW symphonies individually. As a(n expat) Brit I have my favourite British recordings but also highly rate many of the non-British recordings - would be very interested on your take!
That is the plan--I will get to them. Thanks for the push.
Of the non-Britishers, I think Haitink's recording of the Sea symphony is supreme. Great singers, great sound, right tempos, and he milks the "O thou transcendant" moment in the way I think it should be done. I heard Oramo in the same work (a Proms video) and he breezed straight past that section like it was nothing.
I bought the original LP and then the CDs. Silvestri was indeed wonderfuly served by the recording in
Winchester Cathedral and it is surely a recording that can never be bettered in both performance and
sound.
Thanks so much for the recommendations. I agree that Silvestri is fantastic (and your other recommendations- the ones I’ve listened to). I have to point out that Mitropoulos is the only performance I’ve heard that is close to the Composer’s metronome marks - he follows them really closely. else takes it significantly slower. But a bit of extra space while preserving momentum is clearly not a bad thing!
I’ll check out the Mitropolous, I love it when he goes nuts. Tallis needs more oomph than it sometimes gets. Some maestros think works for strings should sound like an easy listening station on satellite radio. Somehow, I’ve never heard the Stokowski either, which I will rectify post haste.
In the late 60s when I was working on my masters in piano at West Virginia University, Thomas Canning was the Composer-in-Residence. I had the Stokowski recording on LP at the time. We had a nice conversation about the Justin Morgan Fantasy. I asked him about the similarities to the Tallis Fantasia. He said he wanted to do for an old American hymn tune what Vaughan-Williams had done for an old English hymn tune. It has been recorded 3 other times besides the Stokowski. Howard Hanson , with the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra on Mercury LP. I don't think it has ever been released on CD. (Mr. Canning liked this recording better than the Stokowski. He said Stokowski took the middle section too slow.) Raymond Leppard with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on a Decca CD called "American Dreams." Jesus Lobos-Cobos with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on a Telarc CD called "American Adagios." I think it is a beautiful piece. And while I can understand the humor in the similarity to the Vaughan-Williams piece, I believe it can be enjoyed on it's own merit. I have enjoyed your videos and look forward to new ones.
Fascinated to watch this review. Having now listened to the recordings on your list that I hadn't previously heard, I must say that for the most part, I would agree with your comments. However, I'm surprised that you dismiss the Marriner versions, because, as an English man, one of my own personal favourite recordings has to be the Argo one from the 1960s. Another favourite of mine - I don't think just having one is humanly possible(!) - is the Andrew Davis with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which oozes passion in spades, and is well worth a listen if you've not heard it. The Silvestri IS rather stunning, both performance and sound. I've actually had the good fortune to engineer the piece personally in Winchester Cathedral, where the Bournemouth Symphony's recording was made, and the Tallis Fantasia could have been written for that building's acoustic. I don't think the piece could EVER sound bad in there 😄
Well, I guess since I'm not English I can dismiss the Marriner. It's not bad, but it is too cool and too lacking in tonal heft, at least comparatively speaking. I agree, though, that Davis is excellent.
EMI has a double CD, with Silvestri version, and fine version og VWs 4,5 and 6 symphonies with Berglund and Gibson ❤️
Thanks - didn't know the Mitropolous version (if anyone deserves a retrospective cube it's him - oh his NY Mahler 6 and equally fine Cologne version - wow! I digress). Love the Silvestri ( I think the easiest way to get it on disc is with Berglund's fantastic VW 4 & 6 on Warner). Whilst agreeing whole heartedly about Barbaroli and Ormandy versions personally, as I mentioned under the Marriner cube review I still think his Argo Fantasia has something different, and valid, to offer. Sapere aude!
I think that Marriner was the one in the Decca Eloquence 2-disc set. I liked it.
@@ThreadBomb I think he recorded it twice (?) - once for Decca/Argo and the other time for Phillips. For me the earlier Argo is the one to get - he doesn't dawdle tempo wise, but the spare, ethereal quality is magical and contrasts well against the urgency of the climaxes. I really like the fact it doesn't wallow as some versions do.
I have a huge number of versions of this iconic work but I always come back to Silvestri's gorgeously atmospheric recording (in either Winchester or Chichester Cathedral, I think - I can't remember which?). I bled a couple of LPs of this white back in the day and this was always the recording which 'seriously' rivalled Barbirolli's version. For me, I would put Slvestri on top, Barbirolli just behind and, I must agree with you, Karajan's Philharmonia recording is truly magnificent.
Now, you'll have to excuse me because I need to hunt down Mitropoulos and Ormandy - which means I'll hae something like 40 versions. Overkill? Yup, quite possibly!
The Karajan/Philharmonia is very fine. Inconceivable that he didn’t re-record it in Stereo.
No it isn't. He couldn't wait to get away from England and English music. It was reverse appeasement, basically.
The Thomas Canning Fantasy was coupled on the Everest Stokowski/Houston SO disc with Stokowski's transcriptions of Walküre music and some Chopin pieces.
That was a different release.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Well, I first had the Stokowski Everest Richard Strauss disc (Till/Don/Salome) on LP back in the 1960s and played the hell out of it, and it was with the NYPO billed as the “Stadium Symphony Orchestra.” Stokowski's Canning Fantasy was on one of his Houston SO Everest discs, and was always coupled with the Wagner and Chopin transcriptions, and still is in the mp3 version.
@@tterrace I know. It was recoupled with the Strauss. I'm not saying you are wrong; you aren't, but it was issued both ways.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Gotcha.
EMI put the Silvestri recording in their big RVW box, but I got confused and for ages thought it was Boult. Then I finally heard the Boult version and realised "Er, ew, no, that's not it!" After that I heard the Barbirolli version, and I think I will have to try to get his disc some time this year. I also have a Marriner version in his 2-disc Decca Eloquence RVW set. That set overall is great. His Tallis Fantasia is obviously not a world-beater in terms of passion, but it does sound very nice and I enjoy listening to it.
Yes, "nice" describes Marriner perfectly, and it is easy and enjoyable to listen to--I agree.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I assume you have that Eloquence set? I think Marriner does well in the other orchestral works. Apart from a somewhat insipid English Folk Song Suite.
Can you please do Sea Symphony? 🌊🙏
Yes, eventually I will.
I hunted down the Canning work. Your description of it as a sideways Tallis Fantasia is entirely on the mark! Less directly derivative, but clearly influenced by Vaughan Williams, is Paul Creston's gorgeous "Gregorian Chant" last seen on a Vanguard disc with Roy Harris' rather odd "Folksong Symphony."
Perhaps a talk to consider is "After the Fantasia" which could include works for massed strings with a modal twist and similar serene but passionate atmosphere. I'm thinking of composers like Alan Hovhaness (Alleluia and Fugue, among others), Arnold Rosner (Responses, Hosanna and Fugue) and, for an alternative take, the one band work (that I know of) using the same Tallis tune, Fisher Tull's "Sketches on a Tudor Psalm."
Maybe you should do the video!
@@DavesClassicalGuide I don't know how to make RUclips videos and I don't have a super-cool tam-tam to use in the background!
All great choices! I also very much like Sir Adrian Boult's Vienna recording; do you know it?
Yes. Doesn't do it for me.
Boult is good. The Vienna band isn't really at home in this music.
@@johncourneil7826 Those who worked with Sir Adrian at the LPO absolutely loved him.
I like the Boult/LSO version as my favorite. Something Boult does in both of these recordings is milk the high E flat in the violin solo. This always gives me goose bumps. There's a hairpin in the score, but most conductors just plow through it and I wished they didn't.
The scene in our humble manse as you seemed on the verge of wrapping up your talk, having singled out Karajan, Mitropoulos, Barbirolli, and Stokowski:
Mrs D: "Ormandy! Ormandy! Ormandy!"
Me: "He's already sung the praises of Barbirolli and Silvestri. That's all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
Mrs D: "No, he needs to talk about Ormandy!"
Dave (interrupting our little tete-a-tete): "No, wait! Stop! Hold everything! ... I forgot the other version of the Tallis Fantasia that you absolutely have to hear! ..."
Mrs D and Dave, in unison: "Ormandy!"
Mrs D, turning to me: "Oh ye of little faith..."
As it happens, we have the Barbirolli, Silvestri, and Ormandy recordings. Now we're about to launch a back-to-back-to-back listening session. With, as a chaser, the Canning Fantasy, as played by the Cincinnati Symphony under Lopez-Cobos on Telarc.
Very nice! Have you ever considered doing a Repertoire video on Frank Martin's mass for double choir? I think it has a very similar feel like this Fantasia
Thanks for the suggestion!
Lyrics derived from psalm 2, 'Why do the nations rage'.
I'm glad you're an unapologetic CD guy and don't go in for all this vinyl tomfoolery.
I liked the version of Robert Spano (Atlanta SO).
Only now does it strike me that the TALLIS FANTASIA achieves in about 20 minutes - and with stupendously greater spiritual quality - what the massive GOTHIC SYMPHONY, during its 2+ hours, aspires to, but can't quite reach: it gazes upon the glories of the past, and plunges into the black hole of modern life and/or a crisis of faith (or just plain old "crisis" will do). Then it emerges from the other end of that hole with both sadness and sheer triumph. At least that's what I hear in it.
LOVE Ormandy's version, too.
Mitropoulos sounding like Scherchen or Rodzinski. Fine with me, I collect all three for exciting performances. I have to get that version. I've got the Silvestri in that complete box set (with many of those on LPs as well EMI and Angels). I have too much Boult but most of his great performances. Ormandy was especially good in the mono era (78s and LP) while he often appeared bored later in life recordings. I have about 20 of his best stereo LPs and this is one of them, sounding better on the CD.
I'm pretty sure the BSO performance was not recorded in a studio but in a religious edifice, namely the beautiful Christchurch Priory in Dorset (southern England) just 10 miles from my home, and close to their concert Hall, the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth town. What a great setting to play this masterpiece, see here fineartamerica.com/featured/christchurch-priory-dorset-england-uk-11th-century-grade-i-listed-church-in-town-centre-michael-charles.html No wonder they gave of their best !
According to the info on Discogs.com and Prestomusic.com, it was recorded at Winchester Cathedral.
@@ftumschk Liner notes on all editions state Winchester Cathedral, yes.
Not correct, Geoff. Winchester Cathedral.
No it was in Winchester Cathedral.
@@ftumschk Thanks for the clarification, I'm mixing this up with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta , the BSO offshoot chamber group that disbanded some 20 years ago. They recorded at Christchurch Priory and made a lot of very fine recordings..
When I am laid... in earth that is. ROFL.