2 (Haitink) and 5 are my favourite VW symphonies and I realy love VW's noble, gentle and deeply poetic music so much. A truly great composer. For years the Previn reading was my first choice, his finale is almost 'eternity hearing' but this playing by the CSO and Slatkin deserves a very high ranking as well. Thank you old England.
This was just performed in Helsinki, March 18th, 2022. The last movement in particular was absolutely astonishing. The performers exceeded themselves. One of the most beautiful symphonies ever composed!
Have the complete VW Symphonies with Leonard Slatkin. Also, the Andre Previn recording set on RCA as well. Superb! Of all the great and lesser-known composers, the music of Vaughan Williams moves me like no other. Lifts my spirits high.
Me too! On my modest budget I could easily justify the expense. And there's huge sampling here on RUclips as I sample the aforementioned Slatkin with the Chicago Symphony. The Osaka Pastoral Symphony are uploading a number of RVW's works. Happy listening. May you be Blessed during our soon coming Thanksgiving and Christmas Observances.
Glorious. From 40:47 onwards it's so important to hear not just the clarinet but the falling three-note phrase as it passes through the strings of the orchestra. It probably takes an American conductor to rid the whole coda of some of the British "reserve". Andre Previn's magnificent version brings tears to my eyes (and he was German-American - even if we all felt he was an honorary Brit too!). This version does so too.
One of the most beautiful of all performances I've heard of VW's great work. Leonard Slatkin is surely one of the most underrated conductors of our time.
The playing on this recording is of course outsanding. Listen to the Barbirolli recording with the Philharmonia orchestra c. 1964. The playing is as great as you´ll ever hear, absolutely sublime.
Thanks for this upload. Rare to hear this symphony played by one of America's best orchestras. There is something quite extraordinary about this work, it's as if V.W. knew that the tyranny of Nazi Germany was soon going to be defeated despite it being written during the darkest days of the war. IMO the fourth movement is one of the greatest of all time and the benchmark recording has to be John Barbirolli and the Philharmonia, rec. around 1965 - the playing is indescribably beautiful.
cameronpaul I wouldn't venture an opinion about the Barbirolli performance being the most definitive, but I will agree that this symphony is one of the greatest of all time (perhaps even of the last century), and yes, most particularly the last movement, as the other movements find their final fulfillment in it.
R.V.W. probably my all time favorite composer ever since the film The Year My Voice Broke, with the Lark Ascending over rural Australian landscape. The T. T. Variations has to be one of the most wonderful pieces of music I have ever known. Great production, wonderful images, beautiful performance, thanks for a lovely way to spend 3/4's of an hour.
For me, the symphony's apotheosis is the climax that begins around 27:45. It is an outpouring of intense emotion that never fails to bring me to tears. The final movement, especially the coda, is benedictory. During the time of the symphony's premiere (June 1943) concerts in London were held in the afternoons because of the nightly Nazi bombing raids. It is said that, at that premiere (which RVW conducted), as the last notes faded away, there was a long moment of silence before the applause started. It was as if everyone took a deep breath and thought "yes, everything IS going to be alright." That feeling of hope is very evident at the conclusion of the work.
Also, the climax of the first movement from 8:25 to 9:34 is another one of RVW's moments where he grabs the listener's emotions and just will not let go.
Probably the greatest of VW's symphonies. Slatkin's performance is first rate. RVW was self-evidently the world's greatest composer, not merely Britain's- I think that this will become generally recognised. The third movement of this symphony, the "Romanza," may well be the greatest piece of music ever written. As is well-known, it uses many of the themes which formed the basis of VW's 1951 opera "Pilgrim's Progress," which is scandalously little known.
Of course Bach and Mozart were great but I have come to love RVW more (Sibelius and Beethoven have also meant a lot to me) and yes this symphony, the Romanza especially, is marvellous. His oboe concerto is utterly lovely. He certainly deserves wider appreciation
I can only listen to this particular symphony once or twice a year because the third movement, Romanza, makes me cry uncontrollably. Inside it is EVERYTHING, all of existence.
Ridiculous to say that RVW is the world's greatest composer (which will NEVER become "generally recognized")! He's not even close, although he's very good. See Bartók, Stravinsky, Mahler, Bach, Beethoven and others for the greatest. You need to listen to a wider range of music!
A peronal note. I find it interesting that a significant number of posts I have read in RUclips commenting on this music express sentiments very similar to my own, in that many name RVW and Sibelius simultaneously as favorites. Both composers produced works that are sublime. VW: All his symphonies (especially 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9,) Tallis Fantasia, Job, Variants of Dives, Concerto for Tuba and Orch., and others too numerous to name. Sibelius: Lemminkainen, En Saga, Kuolema, Kullervo, Symphonies 2, 4, 5, and 7, Violin Concerto, et al. Among RVW's most spiritual and etherial utterances is the third movement of this symphony. This music is piercing and hauntingly and deeply imbedded into the soul of most who hear it for the first time.
+barneysghost RVW dedicated this "without permission" (as he put it) to Sibelius who on hearing it was extremely moved. It's themes derive much in part from his opera Pilgrim's Progress which he'd been working on over the years.
Wow! The CSO sounds wonderful! I have Slatkin’s set with the Philharmonia which I cherish, also Previn & Boult. I did try Haitink in a couple but they were VERY poor performances. Cheers from Australia.
Wonderful playing by one to worlds great orchestras in a work they cannot be that familiar. With those gorgeous Chicago strings and woodwind wrapping themselves lovingly around those glorious melodies. They gave their all and never for a moment did I feel the music was beneath them. Contrast that with the Berlin Philharmonics version of the Tallis Fantasia conducted, if that is not too strong a word for it, by Simon Rattle. They played like pigs and their contempt for the music is shown in every revolting bar. I’ve rarely been so angered by a performance. Of course, I acknowledge their strengths are in the Austro-German canon, but there is really no excuse not being professional for not doing the work justice it deserves. Sadly, when Slatkin went into the studio a year later with Philharmonia Orchestra to record the same work, the rather distant recording seriously compromising the strings on this, one of the most luminous works in the repertoire. Now if only he had had the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall with a half decent engineering team to record the all nine symphonies that would have been a cycle for the ages.
Yes, the pictures of Chicago are a little incongruous; a bit like, say, seeing Sydney Harbour Bridge during Das Deutsches Requiem. But a beautiful piece of music; possibly my favourite. Always moving but now, with the fading away of old England, especially poignant...
Point well made, Christopher. I think RVW's music has a way of deeply connecting with us, well beyond it's original British cultural associations. When hearing 'The Lark Ascending' I'm always reminded of driving around Sth. Australia's Barrossa Valley (excellent wine region!) on a particularly nice day with my wife.
+Pepper Williams This music, like so much of your great great grandfather's music, reminds me so much of, not only Britain, but also many academic/scholarly settings (old libraries and universities), movies like Indiana Jones/the "adventure" side of history, archaeology, museums, etc., and many aspects of the landscapes of Western Europe (like Debussy)-meadows, valleys, etc.
+BenjaminGessel This composer had a very good style . This master had the consciousness of the good beauty and the point that you can't do everything for the beauty . Every aspect seems to be analysed by consciousness and also let sensibility to do his works . It is aristocratic music for everyone !
you make a good point-- what studio recordings are out there of RVW symphonies with American orchestras or central European orchestras? There is Bernstein's 4th with NYPhil, for one...
I quite like "A London Symphony" as recorded in 1941 by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony. It is here on RUclips and in better fidelity than one might think. Lovely piece.
@@Rubbersoulful Right. While some of RVW´s music can in all honestly be dull, at his best he can bring a depth and meaning to music that exceeds anything Copleland ever wrote - a somewhat stupid and uninformed comment.
It was Peter Warlock not Copland. "it is all just a little too much like a cow looking over a gate" I wish RVW had not called this work (my favorite by him) “Pastoral.” After all, there is a pretty lofty precedent to that name-:) He should have called it the Armistice Symphony or something relating to the great war. Oh,well, it is a wonderful work and Slatkin nails it. I also like Boult in this.
I don't know why Copland or Warlock talks about "cows" in any context regarding this symphony. In the opening and often throughout I hear (see?) sails and ships. Anyway, I'm very grateful for this upload which I've just found via a comment on Slatkin's studio recording.
Performance is quite lovely, a new recording to me. However the pictures are meaningless, just a promotion of Chicago, and have nothing at all to do w the music. Really, given the history of this piece of music in particular, and the conductor in general, I found them a bit disturbing. But the music is lovely.
Shifra Fraifeld Pictures of Chicago are disturbing? My goodness the orchestra is from Chicago so I don't get your reasoning. Many pictures from England first and then maybe adam was just trying to be different with the ending. Nothing to get disturbed about. Really I don't understand such a statement sorry.
dbn52 Sorry, pictures of the area around Chicago are surely not disturbing in and of themselves. I grew up in the upper Midwest, and have lived in the Chicago area. I find the scenery there quite beautiful. My reaction stems from an understanding of this history of the symphony itself, written when the world was convulsed in the most terrible conflict in our history. Pictures of Chicago seem so far from the full meaning of the symphony. This drew my reaction, not the pictures themselves. I would only wish the Chicago Symphony success and growth.
That is what I thought but disturbing didn't seem the right word to me. In Chicago we are very lucky to have the CSO.No matter what they play it is marvolous! RVW is just a musical genius
2 (Haitink) and 5 are my favourite VW symphonies and I realy love VW's noble, gentle and deeply poetic music so much. A truly great composer. For years the Previn reading was my first choice, his finale is almost 'eternity hearing' but this playing by the CSO and Slatkin deserves a very high ranking as well. Thank you old England.
❤ wow qué belleza de música,gran perfección de la orquesta y mas su dirección L slatkin 🎉🎉
This was just performed in Helsinki, March 18th, 2022.
The last movement in particular was absolutely astonishing. The performers exceeded themselves.
One of the most beautiful symphonies ever composed!
performed by Finish Radio Symphony?
Have the complete VW Symphonies with Leonard Slatkin. Also, the Andre Previn recording set on RCA as well. Superb!
Of all the great and lesser-known composers, the music of Vaughan Williams moves me like no other. Lifts my spirits high.
Me too! On my modest budget I could easily justify the expense. And there's huge sampling here on RUclips as I sample the aforementioned Slatkin with the Chicago Symphony. The Osaka Pastoral Symphony are uploading a number of RVW's works. Happy listening. May you be Blessed during our soon coming Thanksgiving and Christmas Observances.
the most underated of English composers.I have beeb seperated frommy country for 38 years but Ralph brings me back to where my soul lives.
How is he underrated and by whom?
Glorious. From 40:47 onwards it's so important to hear not just the clarinet but the falling three-note phrase as it passes through the strings of the orchestra. It probably takes an American conductor to rid the whole coda of some of the British "reserve". Andre Previn's magnificent version brings tears to my eyes (and he was German-American - even if we all felt he was an honorary Brit too!). This version does so too.
Re Sibelius, note that RVW dedicated his 5th symphony to Jean Sibelius "without permission." Sibelius was reportedly touched by the dedication.
One of the most beautiful of all performances I've heard of VW's great work. Leonard Slatkin is surely one of the most underrated conductors of our time.
Underrated only by those unfamiliar with his body of work. Slatkin is one of the best conductors of the last 50 years.
It is good to hear this played by a great orchestra.
The playing on this recording is of course outsanding. Listen to the Barbirolli recording with the Philharmonia orchestra c. 1964. The playing is as great as you´ll ever hear, absolutely sublime.
Thanks for this upload. Rare to hear this symphony played by one of America's best orchestras. There is something quite extraordinary about this work, it's as if V.W. knew that the tyranny of Nazi Germany was soon going to be defeated despite it being written during the darkest days of the war. IMO the fourth movement is one of the greatest of all time and the benchmark recording has to be John Barbirolli and the Philharmonia, rec. around 1965 - the playing is indescribably beautiful.
cameronpaul I wouldn't venture an opinion about the Barbirolli performance being the most definitive, but I will agree that this symphony is one of the greatest of all time (perhaps even of the last century), and yes, most particularly the last movement, as the other movements find their final fulfillment in it.
Wow! Fabulous! This must have been overwhelming to hear in person.
Wonderful music, very classy performance by Chicago philharmonic orchestra conducted by maestro Leonard Slatkin. Bravo, bravissimo!
such beautiful string playing by the CSO................
R.V.W. probably my all time favorite composer ever since the film The Year My Voice Broke, with the Lark Ascending over rural Australian landscape. The T. T. Variations has to be one of the most wonderful pieces of music I have ever known.
Great production, wonderful images, beautiful performance, thanks for a lovely way to spend 3/4's of an hour.
Yes, it's remarkable how such an English piece of music works so well set against the landscape of the Monaro region of NSW.
For me, the symphony's apotheosis is the climax that begins around 27:45. It is an outpouring of intense emotion that never fails to bring me to tears. The final movement, especially the coda, is benedictory. During the time of the symphony's premiere (June 1943) concerts in London were held in the afternoons because of the nightly Nazi bombing raids. It is said that, at that premiere (which RVW conducted), as the last notes faded away, there was a long moment of silence before the applause started. It was as if everyone took a deep breath and thought "yes, everything IS going to be alright." That feeling of hope is very evident at the conclusion of the work.
jbs901 9
Also, the climax of the first movement from 8:25 to 9:34 is another one of RVW's moments where he grabs the listener's emotions and just will not let go.
Probably the greatest of VW's symphonies. Slatkin's performance is first rate. RVW was self-evidently the world's greatest composer, not merely Britain's- I think that this will become generally recognised. The third movement of this symphony, the "Romanza," may well be the greatest piece of music ever written. As is well-known, it uses many of the themes which formed the basis of VW's 1951 opera "Pilgrim's Progress," which is scandalously little known.
Of course Bach and Mozart were great but I have come to love RVW more (Sibelius and Beethoven have also meant a lot to me) and yes this symphony, the Romanza especially, is marvellous. His oboe concerto is utterly lovely. He certainly deserves wider appreciation
I can only listen to this particular symphony once or twice a year because the third movement, Romanza, makes me cry uncontrollably. Inside it is EVERYTHING, all of existence.
A little hyperbole goes a long way.
Ridiculous to say that RVW is the world's greatest composer (which will NEVER become "generally recognized")! He's not even close, although he's very good. See Bartók, Stravinsky, Mahler, Bach, Beethoven and others for the greatest. You need to listen to a wider range of music!
I am going to see this performed by the Phoenix Symphony tonight. Looking forward to a wonderful evening with my Music Teacher Significant Other.
Love anything by RVW, thanks for sharing!
A peronal note. I find it interesting that a significant number of posts I have read in RUclips commenting on this music express sentiments very similar to my own, in that many name RVW and Sibelius simultaneously as favorites. Both composers produced works that are sublime. VW: All his symphonies (especially 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9,) Tallis Fantasia, Job, Variants of Dives, Concerto for Tuba and Orch., and others too numerous to name. Sibelius: Lemminkainen, En Saga, Kuolema, Kullervo, Symphonies 2, 4, 5, and 7, Violin Concerto, et al.
Among RVW's most spiritual and etherial utterances is the third movement of this symphony. This music is piercing and
hauntingly and deeply imbedded into the soul of most who hear it for the first time.
+barneysghost RVW dedicated this "without permission" (as he put it) to Sibelius who on hearing it was extremely moved. It's themes derive much in part from his opera Pilgrim's Progress which he'd been working on over the years.
Let me join thus club
Since Christmas is but a week away, I must not fail to mention RVW's magnificent Christmas cantata HODIE! RUclips has at least 1 versions of it.
Thank you for this beautiful upload.
The best interpretation of the ending of this symphony since Boult's in the 1950s....
Love the photo's of Gloucester Cathedral, with which RVW had a connection throuh his Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis.
The scenery looks like Surrey in England where RVW spent a lot of time at Leith Hill now Owned by the national trust. Very beautiful area.
Yep, picture is Dorking.
However the cathedral is Gloucester cathedral, obviously in Gloucestershire.
Wow! The CSO sounds wonderful! I have Slatkin’s set with the Philharmonia which I cherish, also Previn & Boult. I did try Haitink in a couple but they were VERY poor performances. Cheers from Australia.
Wonderful playing by one to worlds great orchestras in a work they cannot be that familiar. With those gorgeous Chicago strings and woodwind wrapping themselves lovingly around those glorious melodies.
They gave their all and never for a moment did I feel the music was beneath them. Contrast that with the Berlin Philharmonics version of the Tallis Fantasia conducted, if that is not too strong a word for it, by Simon Rattle. They played like pigs and their contempt for the music is shown in every revolting bar. I’ve rarely been so angered by a performance. Of course, I acknowledge their strengths are in the Austro-German canon, but there is really no excuse not being professional for not doing the work justice it deserves.
Sadly, when Slatkin went into the studio a year later with Philharmonia Orchestra to record the same work, the rather distant recording seriously compromising the strings on this, one of the most luminous works in the repertoire. Now if only he had had the Chicago Symphony in Orchestra Hall with a half decent engineering team to record the all nine symphonies that would have been a cycle for the ages.
BRAVI TUTTI.....from Acapulco!
Yes, the pictures of Chicago are a little incongruous; a bit like, say, seeing Sydney Harbour Bridge during Das Deutsches Requiem.
But a beautiful piece of music; possibly my favourite. Always moving but now, with the fading away of old England, especially poignant...
Point well made, Christopher. I think RVW's music has a way of deeply connecting with us, well beyond it's original British cultural associations. When hearing 'The Lark Ascending' I'm always reminded of driving around Sth. Australia's Barrossa Valley (excellent wine region!) on a particularly nice day with my wife.
The potrait of RVW at42:27 looks a lot like Ingre's portrait of Louis-François Bertin.
It does! This portrait is by Sir Gerald Kelly.
My great great grandfather.........RVW
+Pepper Williams This music, like so much of your great great grandfather's music, reminds me so much of, not only Britain, but also many academic/scholarly settings (old libraries and universities), movies like Indiana Jones/the "adventure" side of history, archaeology, museums, etc., and many aspects of the landscapes of Western Europe (like Debussy)-meadows, valleys, etc.
+Pepper Williams Is John Williams from STAR WARS music your relative too?
+BenjaminGessel This composer had a very good style . This master had the consciousness of the good beauty and the point that you can't do everything for the beauty . Every aspect seems to be analysed by consciousness and also let sensibility to do his works . It is aristocratic music for everyone !
***** Well, you learn something new every day... Apparently, I just did...
Pepper, your Great Great Grandfather has given me decades of joy. The dilemma remains... how does one repay such a debt?
I detect hints of his (later? 1950's?) "Variations for Brass Band" here.
The second movement is so modern.
you make a good point-- what studio recordings are out there of RVW symphonies with American orchestras or central European orchestras? There is Bernstein's 4th with NYPhil, for one...
I quite like "A London Symphony" as recorded in 1941 by Eugene Goossens and the Cincinnati Symphony. It is here on RUclips and in better fidelity than one might think. Lovely piece.
I came here because of a comment that said listening to this symphony is like watching a cow 45 minutes straight 😂
Copland, right?
@@Rubbersoulful He was wrong.
@@Rubbersoulful Right. While some of RVW´s music can in all honestly be dull, at his best he can bring a depth and meaning to music that exceeds anything Copleland ever wrote - a somewhat stupid and uninformed comment.
It was Peter Warlock not Copland.
"it is all just a little too much like a cow looking over a gate" I wish RVW had not called this work (my favorite by him) “Pastoral.” After all, there is a pretty lofty precedent to that name-:)
He should have called it the Armistice Symphony or something relating to the great war. Oh,well, it is a wonderful work and Slatkin nails it. I also like Boult in this.
I don't know why Copland or Warlock talks about "cows" in any context regarding this symphony. In the opening and often throughout I hear (see?) sails and ships. Anyway, I'm very grateful for this upload which I've just found via a comment on Slatkin's studio recording.
ADAM, HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THOSE PIX TO THIS MUSIC.....DID YOU TAKE THE PIX, AND IS IT ENGLAND ?
JUST NOW DISCOVERING RVW, THANKS FOR THE UPLOAD !!!
Aaaaahhhh...
The Scherzo is a bit slow, but otherwise fine.
Performance is quite lovely, a new recording to me. However the pictures are meaningless, just a promotion of Chicago, and have nothing at all to do w the music. Really, given the history of this piece of music in particular, and the conductor in general, I found them a bit disturbing. But the music is lovely.
Shifra Fraifeld Pictures of Chicago are disturbing? My goodness the orchestra is from Chicago so I don't get your reasoning. Many pictures from England first and then maybe adam was just trying to be different with the ending. Nothing to get disturbed about. Really I don't understand such a statement sorry.
dbn52 Sorry, pictures of the area around Chicago are surely not disturbing in and of themselves. I grew up in the upper Midwest, and have lived in the Chicago area. I find the scenery there quite beautiful. My reaction stems from an understanding of this history of the symphony itself, written when the world was convulsed in the most terrible conflict in our history. Pictures of Chicago seem so far from the full meaning of the symphony. This drew my reaction, not the pictures themselves. I would only wish the Chicago Symphony success and growth.
That is what I thought but disturbing didn't seem the right word to me. In Chicago we are very lucky to have the CSO.No matter what they play it is marvolous! RVW is just a musical genius