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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
129 of 130 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is the RVW disc which started my collection of his music over ten years ago. It opens with a beautifully performed 'Serenade to Music', the only vocal track on the album. If you are normally allergic to 'classical' singing and prefer instrumental pieces, this may just convert you, because it has so many bewitching moments - and besides, the vocals on this recording are not quite as forward as other versions.
Again, if your opinion of British music is that it consists of 'marches and ceremonials', the English Folk Song Suite may overturn your thoughts on that genre. It certainly does include a march, but it's irresistable, and the Intermezzo is a gem.
The Norfolk Rhapsody and Fen Country pieces are atmospheric tone-poems from RVW's earliest years of success, impressionistic, misty creations with a hint of folk tune.
The one piece you should not hesitate to buy this disc for, though, is The Lark Ascending (with Hugh Bean on violin). There are plenty of recordings of this out there of course, but none has ever displaced this one. The recording of violin and orchestra is perfectly balanced, and the actual performances masterly. This is a popular piece, but it needs a sure touch, anything less and the poetry vanishes. Crucial (to my ears) is the sustained chord held by the orchestra right at the start - it should make you see things! If that's done right, as it is here, the piece performs its magic for the listener effortlessly from that point on.
This Lark recording often turns up elsewhere, but this is the best disc to have. If it could convert a cautious new 'classical' listener like me into a RVW obsessive within its duration, then it can't come with any stronger recommendation.
Again, if your opinion of British music is that it consists of 'marches and ceremonials', the English Folk Song Suite may overturn your thoughts on that genre. It certainly does include a march, but it's irresistable, and the Intermezzo is a gem.
The Norfolk Rhapsody and Fen Country pieces are atmospheric tone-poems from RVW's earliest years of success, impressionistic, misty creations with a hint of folk tune.
The one piece you should not hesitate to buy this disc for, though, is The Lark Ascending (with Hugh Bean on violin). There are plenty of recordings of this out there of course, but none has ever displaced this one. The recording of violin and orchestra is perfectly balanced, and the actual performances masterly. This is a popular piece, but it needs a sure touch, anything less and the poetry vanishes. Crucial (to my ears) is the sustained chord held by the orchestra right at the start - it should make you see things! If that's done right, as it is here, the piece performs its magic for the listener effortlessly from that point on.
This Lark recording often turns up elsewhere, but this is the best disc to have. If it could convert a cautious new 'classical' listener like me into a RVW obsessive within its duration, then it can't come with any stronger recommendation.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Not many conductors match Adrian Boult's masterly performances of V-Williams music, for its rich tonal colours, noble poise and eloquence. Definitely a must-buy CD for anyone who loves VW's music!
40 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I JUST WANT TO AGREE WITH EVERY WORD THAT MR JORDAN HAD SAID ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR RECORDING, NOT JUST OF 'THE LARK', BUT OF SERENADE TO MUSIC ALSO. IN FACT I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ON THIS ALBUM! I BOUGHT MY VINYL COPY IN THE EARLY 70'S AND IT IS NOW SO WORN OUT THAT I DECIDED TO LOOK TO SEE IF A CD WAS AVAILABLE. WHAT JOY! NOT ONLY HAVE I BEEN ABLE TO FIND A CD OF MY TREASURED RECORDING, BUT WITH BONUS TRACKS, AND AT AN INCREDIBLY LOW PRICE. FOR ME THIS IS THE PURCHASE OF THE MONTH.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Listening
A great value CD from a superb artist. Listening to the tracks you can just close your eyes and imagine whatever you like. Recommended.
Published 3 months ago by Micksie
drop back a couple of centuries
Lovely pieces of work !... the English Folk Song suite is so evocative of times gone long by it conjurs up images of country fairs from Thoma Hardy novels. Excellent.. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Clipper 314
Impeccable VW from the master
Sir Adrian Boult remains the foremost interpreter of the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (honourable mentions for Sir TB, Sir JB, and VH)
This is a wonderful cocktail of... Read more
This is a wonderful cocktail of... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. N. Hazell
English music at its best.
To put together a combination of Vaughan Williams and Sir Adrian Boult can only lead to the most irresistible disc I have ever listened to, which ever orchestra is playing here it... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. N. D. Flint
Great Introduction to Vaughan Williams
I am just starting to build a decent library of 'classical' music. This CD contains a good selection of work by Vaughan Williams that includes vocal and instrumental pieces. Read more
Published 11 months ago by missreader
Wonderful, mellow collection of classical music
I'm no classical connoisseur but I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It contains not only the wonderfully memorable "The Lark Ascending" but I was happy to encounter Williams's other... Read more
Published 16 months ago by DaveW
Wonderful
This CD features great performances of Serenade to Music, Norfolk Rhapsody, In the Fen Country, and perhaps best of all, The Lark Ascending with Hugh Bean as solo violinist. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Andreas
Boult conducts VW music.
Definitive live recording of the orchestra directed by Sir Adrian Boult.
Vaughan Williams creative, musical brilliance is here.
Vaughan Williams creative, musical brilliance is here.
Published 22 months ago by Tackler
A Collection of great recordings
This CD got me acquainted with some of the lesser known works of VW, apart from the well-known Lark Ascending (with Hugh Bean on violin, e.g. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2009 by H. A. Wierenga
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