{"product_id":"boult-vaughan-williams-symphonies-volume-3-symphonies-4-5-1953-pasc665","title":"BOULT Vaughan Williams Symphonies Volume 3: Symphonies 4 \u0026 5 (1953) - PASC665","description":"overviewfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eVAUGHAN WILLIAMS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e Symphony No. 4\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003eVAUGHAN WILLIAMS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e Symphony No. 5\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eStudio recordings, 1953\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eTotal duration: 71:55\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eLondon Philharmonic Orchestra\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003econducted by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003eSir Adrian Boult\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_titlefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_quotefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_bodyfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9main_samplefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fsamples\/PASC665.mp3578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fProducer's Note578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcontent578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\nComposed in 1931–34 and dedicated to Arnold Bax, the Fourth Symphony of\nVaughan Williams notoriously represents for many listeners a bewildering\ndeparture from his usual compositional style. Although fellow composers\nwaxed enthusiastic – William Walton supposedly said that it was “the\ngreatest symphony since Beethoven” – critical reception was far cooler.\nWriting in \u003cem\u003eThe Manchester Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e on April 11, 1935, the day\nafter the premiere, Neville Cardus opined: “Vaughan Williams is becoming an\nenigma. A few years ago he was one of our purest melodists, drawing his\nsimple accents from English folk-tunes. To-day he is everything but a\nmelodist. His new symphony, played superbly to-night by the B.B.C.\nOrchestra under Dr. Boult, has many admirable orchestral qualities, but a\nman might as well hang himself as look in the work for a great tune or\ntheme…. I decline to believe that a symphony can be made out of a method,\nplus gusto.”\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nThe Fourth represents a departure from the essentially poetic and\ndiscursive veins of RVW’s first three symphonies: It is far more taut and\nabstract, more academically rigorous in its formal procedures, as well as\nfar more jagged and bitingly dissonant in its thematic contours and\nharmonics. As in the Piano Concerto from 1926–31, one hears the composer\ngrappling with the compositional idioms of Bartók and Hindemith. The\nscore’s “meaning” remains controversial. Its blazing fierceness often later\nwould be seen as prophetic of the catastrophes of totalitarianism and war\nsoon about to engulf Europe. In an October 1958 essay in the \u003cem\u003eMusical Times\u003c\/em\u003e, Boult asserted that RVW “foresaw the whole thing\n[i.e. war] and surely there is no more magnificent gesture of disgust in\nall music than the final open fifth when the composer seems to rid himself\nof the whole hideous idea.” But in a letter from December 1937, RVW denied\nsuch associations: “I wrote it not as a definite picture of anything\nexternal – e.g. the state of Europe – but simply because it occurred to me\nlike this.” On the other hand, RVW’s biographer Michael Kennedy saw the\nwork as “a kind of self-portrait: the towering rages of which Vaughan\nWilliams was capable, his robust humour, his poetic nature,” and a friend\nwrote to RVW after the premiere that “I recognized your poisonous temper in\nthe scherzo.” Perhaps the best and last word is the composer’s exasperated\nrejoinder, “It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to\nwrite a piece of music.”\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\nThe Fifth Symphony, composed between 1938 and 1943, is the Fourth’s\nantipode in spirit and temperament, though structurally both works employ\ncyclical forms, with the finales bringing back materials from the opening\nmovements. However, rather than reverting back to the style of the first\nthree symphonies, the Fifth instead moved forward to break new ground as\none of RVW’s most spiritually profound works. The composer had been\nlaboring since 1906 on an opera based on John Bunyan’s \u003cem\u003eThe Pilgrim’s Progress\u003c\/em\u003e; doubtful of its completion (he would\nfinally finish it in 1949), he recycled some of its materials into music\nfor a dramatic radio presentation and this symphony. Although not printed\nin the published version, the manuscript of the \u003cem\u003eRomanza\u003c\/em\u003e third\nmovement that forms the heart of the work quotes the following lines from\nBunyan’s work: “Upon that place there stood a cross, And a little below a\nsepulchre … Then he said, ‘He hath given me rest by his sorrow and Life by\nhis death.’” Frank Howes, writing in \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e on 25 June 1943,\nthe day after the premiere under RVW’s baton, rightly discerned that the\nwork is “therefore essentially apocalyptic, but in the only way possible to\nthe composer, that of quiet contemplation, not of a sudden or dramatic\nrevelation. It seems to absorb into itself and sum up all that he has ever\nwritten, and to give us a restatement of his whole philosophy now proved by\nlife’s experience. It is not too much to say that this belongs to that\nsmall body of music that, outside of late Beethoven, can properly be\ndescribed as transcendental.” Due to wartime difficulties in\ncommunications, the score’s frontispiece reads, “Dedicated without\npermission to Jean Sibelius.” Boult subsequently secured Sibelius’s\nconsent, and after hearing a broadcast performance the Finnish composer\nwrote: “This Symphony is a marvelous work.... The dedication made me feel\nproud and grateful.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJAMES ALTENA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fFull Track Listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5ftrack_listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBOULT \u003c\/b\u003eVaughan Williams Symphonies, Volume 3\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVAUGHAN WILLIAMS\u003c\/b\u003e Symphony No.4 in F minor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. 1st mvt. - Allegro  (9:10)\u003cbr\u003e2. 2nd mvt. - Andante moderato  (10:10)\u003cbr\u003e3. 3rd mvt. - Scherzo. Allegro molto  (5:44)\u003cbr\u003e4. 4th mvt. - Finale con epilogo fugato. Allegro molto  (9:31)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVAUGHAN WILLIAMS\u003c\/b\u003e Symphony No.5 in D major\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5. 1st mvt. - Preludio. Moderato  (11:01)\u003cbr\u003e6. 2nd mvt. - Scherzo. Presto  (4:58)\u003cbr\u003e7. 3rd mvt. - Romanza. Lento  (10:58)\u003cbr\u003e8. 4th mvt. - Passacaglia. Moderato  (10:23)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLondon Philharmonic Orchestra   \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003econducted by \u003cb\u003eSir Adrian Boult\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eXR Remastered by \u003cb\u003eAndrew Rose\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCover artwork based on a photograph of Vaughan Williams\u003cbr\u003eRecorded 2, 3 \u0026amp; 5 December 1953, Kingsway Hall, London\u003cbr\u003eProduced by John Culshaw \u0026amp; James Walker\u003cbr\u003eEngineered by Kenneth Wilkinson\u003cbr\u003eRecordings supervised by the composer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTotal duration:  71:55  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fCover Art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcover_art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/thumbs\/PASC665.jpg578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/PASC665.pdf578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f","brand":"Pristine Classical","offers":[{"title":"Ambient Stereo 24-bit FLAC","offer_id":55010090451310,"sku":"ury1789306556094","price":14.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ambient Stereo 16-bit FLAC","offer_id":55010090484078,"sku":"hai1789306556095","price":9.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"320kbps Ambient Stereo MP3","offer_id":55010090516846,"sku":"zdg1789306556096","price":8.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0915\/3986\/5966\/files\/boult-vaughan-williams-symphonies-volume-3-symphonies-4-5-1953---pasc665_1.jpg?v=1789306565","url":"https:\/\/www.harborviewgoods.shop\/products\/boult-vaughan-williams-symphonies-volume-3-symphonies-4-5-1953-pasc665","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}