BaL 8.02.14 - Vaughan Williams Symphony no. 9

[amateur51]

According to the online schedule, Jonathan Swaiin has been allocated a full hour for his review. Good news indeed.

While welcome, it is bizarre that a work with relatively few recordings is given ten minutes more than DON was given for the Grieg piano concerto, with versions coming thick and fast.

I'd be happy for BaL to occupy an hour each week (with Interpretations on Record every Sunday afternoon, of course )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

According to the online schedule, Jonathan Swaiin has been allocated a full hour for his review. Good news indeed.

Hmmm.

[BBMmk2]

Ihave Boult's (I think 1962 version) and his 2nd recording both with the LPO, the Sir Andrew Davies and Vernon Handley, plus individuals. Perhaps I should acquire the Previn?

[amateur51]

Ihave Boult's (I think 1962 version) and his 2nd recording both with the LPO, the Sir Andrew Davies and Vernon Handley, plus individuals. Perhaps I should acquire the Previn?

Don't be too hasty, Bbm - less than a week to 'til BaL

[seabright]

The list in #1 shows an LSO / Boult recording. On what label can we find that, as I only know of his two LPO versions. The Stokowski incidentally is as available both as a download and as a conventional CD at £10.15 direct from Cala itself.

[HighlandDougie]

If anyone is interested in downloading the 1958 Sargent/RPO performance, it can be found here:

http://themusicparlour.blogspot.fr/2010/07/malcolm-sargent-rpo-vaughan-williams.html

The correspondence below the download links is not exactly edifying, although it does shed some light on the otherwise obscurely acrimonious exchange contained in the 'Pristine Audio Favourites' thread elsewhere in this CD Review meta-thread

[richardfinegold]

Building a Library 9.30 a.m.
Jonathan Swain makes a personal recommendation from recordings of Vaughan Willliams' darkly enigmatic 9th Symphony.

Available recordings:-

Bournemouth SO, Kees Bakels
LPO, Sir Adrian Boult (2 versions)
LSO, Sir Adrian Boult
BBC SO, Sir Andrew Davis
LPO, Bernard Haitink
RLPO, Vernon Handley
LSO, Richard Hickox
LSO, Andre Previn
RPO, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Philharmonia Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
Stokowski Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski (download)
London Symphony Orchestra, Bryden Thomson

Such a (compared to your recent efforts) short list for you to type, Alpie. I hope that you make good use of your free time.

I have the Boult recording, which features a short speech by the Conductor mentioning that the Composer had died the previous day. How can that ever be matched?
I also have Bryden Thomson and Previn but haven't listened to them in ages.

[Black Swan]

This will be an interesting BAL. I have the complete set by Handley and the RLPO. I am going back listening to them again.

[seabright]

If anyone is interested in downloading the 1958 Sargent/RPO performance, it can be found here:

http://themusicparlour.blogspot.fr/2010/07/malcolm-sargent-rpo-vaughan-williams.html

The correspondence below the download links is not exactly edifying, although it does shed some light on the otherwise obscurely acrimonious exchange contained in the 'Pristine Audio Favourites' thread elsewhere in this CD Review meta-thread

It's also on You Tube from an Italian uploader ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiJHg6ZbVG8

[neiltingley]

An amazing performance. It's the only one of the 9th I have!

[EdgeleyRob]

How do the three saxophone players and percussion batterie in the Bakels 'Scherzo' compare with the American players in Stokowski's performance, as per this extract on You Tube? ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3DApLXA0ww

Remarkably similar,maybe the side drum sounds more prominent in the Stokowski and the saxophones seem to sound more menacing (I think they should sound so,or sinister is maybe a better word) in the Bakels.
The timings for this movement are almost identical too.

Interesting piece on Stokowski and RVW here http://www.stokowski.org/Stokowski_a...n_Williams.htm

An introduction to the Symphonies here

I don't know of a Boullt/LSO recording.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't know of a Boullt/LSO recording.

This could be an error, but in my research, I thought I'd stumbled on a live performance with the LSO.

[verismissimo]

One of those rare occasions when... I don't think I've got a single recording, nor ever actually heard the work.

The above is complete rubbish. Can't think who can have written it. I used to have the Boult 9 on an Everest LP in awful sound. Now gone. And I purchased the 1968-1970 Boult set quite recently and have not given it much play time.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Ah, yes! The Andrew Davis eye-opener: my respect for him shot up after that concert - and wasn't it available on a BBCMusMag cover CD? If so, well worth investing in if you can find it.

It was a very fine Prom, which I've looked out on DVD this afternoon. It featured an interesting interval feature with CB-H on location in Winchester and at Stonehenge tracing the symphony's Tess roots.

[Bryn]

It's a pity that neither Norrington nor Hickox recording the 9th as part of their incomplete surveys of the symphonies of RVW. I feel each would have had something of value to contribute.