Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer and folk song collector. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over nearly fifty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

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.
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Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer and folk song collector. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over nearly fifty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.Read More
19 albums
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BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 4
WALTON Viola Concerto
ELGAR Enigma Variations
HOLST A Fugal Concerto
COPLAND El Salón México
BUTTERWORTH A Shropshire Lad, Rhapsody
BUSONI Comedy Overture*

Live broadcast recordings, 1938
Total duration: 2hr 40:41 (CDs: 2hr 34:04)

William Primrose, viola
NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

*Bonus track supplied with downloads only

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HOLST The Planets
BUTTERWORTH A Shropshire Lad
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Orchestral version)

Live broadcast recordings, 1943/44
Total duration:  71:28

NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leopold Stokowski

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 4
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 5

Studio recordings, 1953
Total duration: 71:55

London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3)

Studio recordings, 1952
Total duration: 79:17

Margaret Ritchie, soprano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A Sea Symphony
(Symphony No. 1)

Studio recording, 1953/4
Total duration: 67:20

Isobel Baillie, soprano
John Cameron, baritone
London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra  
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 8

Studio recordings, 1953 & 1956
Total duration: 73:42

Margaret Ritchie, soprano
John Gielgud, speaker
London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 6
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 9

Studio recordings, 1953 & 1958
Total duration: 75:32

London Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult