Vaughan Williams
Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social outlook. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–08 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music.
Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914). His vocal works include hymns, folk-song arrangements and large-scale choral pieces. He wrote eight works for stage performance between 1919 and 1951. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing (1930) was successful and has been frequently staged.
Two episodes made notably deep impressions in Vaughan Williams's personal life. The First World War, in which he served in the army, had a lasting emotional effect. Twenty years later, though in his sixties and devotedly married, he was reinvigorated by a love affair with a much younger woman, who later became his second wife. He went on composing through his seventies and eighties, producing his last symphony months before his death at the age of eighty-five. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, and all his major compositions and many of the minor ones have been recorded.
Vaughan Williams
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Old King Cole ‒ Ballet
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS English Folk Song Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on Greensleeves
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Job ‒ A Masque for Dancing
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Wasps ‒ Aristophanic Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Partita for Double String Orchestra
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Studio recordings, 1953-1956
Total duration: 2hr 32:22
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A London Symphony
WALTON Violin Concerto
DELIUS The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Studio recordings, 1941/46
Total duration: 76:18
Jascha Heifetz, violin
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Eugene Goossens
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 9
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2)
Recorded in 1958 and 1945
Total duration: 77:50
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 4
ENESCU Romanian Rhapsody
ELGAR Introduction and Allegro
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasy on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Recorded live in 1940 and 1945
Total duration: 72:11
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Arturo Toscanini
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 8
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G minor
D'INDY Symphony on a French Mountain Air
Recorded in stereo in 1958
Total duration: 76:25
Boston Symphony Orchestra
conductor Charles Munch
Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer piano
VARIOUS ARTISTS A Christmas Collection
Total duration: 67:49
Recorded between 1926 and 1957
Restoration and remastering by John Duffy, Peter Harrison, Ward Marston, Mark Obert-Thorn and Andrew Rose
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphonies 1 - 9
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Old King Cole ‒ Ballet
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS English Folk Song Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on Greensleeves
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Job ‒ A Masque for Dancing
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Wasps ‒ Aristophanic Suite
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Partita for Double String Orchestra
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Studio recordings, 1952-1958
Isobel Baillie, soprano
Margaret Ritchie, soprano
John Cameron, baritone
John Gielgud, speaker
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
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