Vaughan Williams: Where Do I Start?

[haydnguy]

If I should have put this in Romantic, by all means move it. I didn't know but guessing from the time in which he lived.

What's good? What do I expect? Thanks.................

[Scott Good]

For me, when is is on, it is great. But some works are just too ponderous for my modern sound byte mind!

My favorite is the "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" - definitely check that gem out. For strings alone, he cleverly scores the ensemble in 3 groups - full ensemble, 1st desks, and quartet, thus giving depth to an ensemble that can sometimes be too homogeneous.

[micrologus]

Indeed, "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" is a jewel!
I have tried to upload this but will have to find another way to let you hear it.
Hey Schubie, don't you remember? Kuhlau gave us a link to an extraordinary performance of the Fantasia. Unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore

Ok, with a little help from Philidor, you'll hear it here

<<---- You'll need to play it through a browser or desktop player - the file's too big to stream ---->>

http://www.classicalmusicforum.net/music/Fantasia-on-a-Theme-by-Thomas-Tallis.mp3

[micrologus]

Thank you Phil

[Herzeleide]

I can recommend this:

[micrologus]

Originally Posted by Herzeleide

I can recommend this:

Thanks for recommending this one, Herzie

A real bargain at Amazon UK: 17£98 for the whole box set


Amazon.com: 46$98 for the same box set

[Florestan]

The piano concerto - he only wrote one - is FANTASTIC.

So is the song cycle 'On Wenlock Edge'.

[haydnguy]

Is he often played in concerts in Britain?? Just curious, because I was reading that Bax isn't and he (Bax) has some excellent music.

[haydnguy]

I just saw this one and am wondering about it? Specifically the quality of the recordings and performers. About the same price as the other set and it has 30 disks versus 7 on the other one.

Anyone know?? Thanks....

[stephen w]

This is a lovely album, everything on it is very good, and it seems quite cheap from Amazon. It would be a good start for Vaughan Williams.Riders to the Sea, his short opera, I was very taken by (I put together a review of it on 06/12/08 , on a thread called Concert reviews, if you wanted to have a look).

He was a guiding light of the English Hymnal (1906,1933), and wrote some beautiful hymn tunes; some of the best (I feel) in the English Hymnal arise from folk tunes - unsurprisingly. The Wikipedia entry on the English Hymnal is good; what RVW writes at the beginning of the Hymnal is worth reading.

(A very good hymn writer, he was an agnostic: I have often found church organists to be so, by and bye).

Some good tunes from the English Hymnal:

At the Name of Jesus (tune : King's Weston)

Come down, oh Love Divine (tune : Down Ampney)

For all the Saints (tune : Sine Nomine)

He who would valiant be (tune : Monk's Gate)


A website with much information about RVW is www.agentsmith.com/rvw.php.