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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Job, a masque for dancing; Prelude on an old carol tune; Variations for orchestra (orch - Gordon Jacob). Munich Symphony Orchestra, Douglas Bostock. British Symphonic Collection vol. 2. Classico CLASSCD 244 [63.47]

 

Crotchet


The second release in ClassicO's British Symphonic Collection gathers one of Vaughan Williams' masterpieces and two shorter works of which one receives, as far as I am aware, its first commercial recording and the other one of its rare performances.

RVW's late Variations for Brass also exist in a version for symphonic wind orchestra by Donald Hunsberger (Sony MK 44916) and the present version for orchestra by Gordon Jacob.

Prelude on an Old Carol Tune (1951) started its life as incidental music to a BBC broadcast of Thomas Hardy's novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. RVW rescued and arranged some of the music. This short piece based principally on a variant of the carol On Christmas Night is again some sort of fantasia roughly on the same model as other similar pieces in his output. On the whole it is an engaging work well worth having.

The main work here is of course Job - A Masque for Dancing which is one of RVW's greatest masterpieces. The piece is well-known enough to need any particular comments. Suffice it to say that this powerful work shows a considerable stylistic advance on its predecessors and hints at a more radical approach which was to show in the Piano Concerto and - more importantly - in the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies. Though I confess that I approached it with some apprehension (for this is no easy work) I may now say that the present performance is very fine indeed. The slower sections are generally more successful. The Dance of the Three Messengers in particular gets a searingly beautiful reading. The more dynamic episodes may seem slightly less satisfying in that rhythms might generally be more pointed. (This may be due to some extent to the acoustics.) Nevertheless this is on the whole a very fine reading though my first choice is still Handley's magnificent recording (EMI Eminence CDM 7-62016-2).

All in all a very fine release that is worth considering, the more so that it presents a first recording of a lesser-known work and a quite good one of the not-so-well-known Variations for Orchestra. Such brave ventures are to be warmly encouraged.

Reviewer

Hubert Culot

See also reviews by Rob Barnett and David Wright


Reviewer

Hubert Culot

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