Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the greatest British composers, and a towering presence over the British music scene in the 20th century. For most composers, having nine symphonies to your name would be your biggest achievement but for RVW the sheer breadth of his compositions shows that he was by no means just a symphonist. Ever one to produce music for amateur musicians, church performances and local choirs, as well as professionals, he composed operas, ballets, concertos, choral and vocal works, film scores, instrumental and band music.
Vaughan Williams was an avid collector of folk music - transcribing songs and melodies from all over the country before the collective memory died, and his assimilation of folk idioms into his own style was part of an English "renaissance" - a reaction against the European, and mainly Germanic styles of music prevalent around the turn of the 20th century.
Many of his compositions were adapted for performance by different groups of players, and the piece here is one such composition. The Prelude and Fugue in C minor sounds like it should be for organ - and initially it was, composed as such in 1921. But in 1930 Vaughan Williams orchestrated it for the Three Choirs Festival of that year, and here is its first recording in this version.
Vernon Handley
It's no surprise that this first recording was made by conductor Vernon Handley. Over his long career he did more for British music than any other conductor, championing music that was little heard and unfashionable at the time. Recording not only for Classics for Pleasure, but for EMI, Chandos, Lyrita, and Conifer amongst others, Handley's recorded legacy has some important achievements - including the symphony cycles of Vaughan Williams (with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), Malcolm Arnold, Robert Simpson and the jewel in the crown that of Arnold Bax for Chandos.
Classics for Pleasure was the classical music offshoot of EMI's budget label Music for Pleasure, and although mostly being a reissue label it also produced its own recordings (to the same high standards of its EMI parent). These were largely sponsored, and back in the day it was OK for tobacco companies to put their name to recordings and concerts.
No comments:
Post a Comment