Vaughan Williams Pastoral Symphony; Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2 [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD, SACD]

Truth is I've never been able to work out the Chandos approach to SACDs. I'm not sure whether they consider multichannel DSD just an added bonus feature, or whether they're attempting to produce the very best in audio. If it's the latter they've got a lot to learn, and they might want to start by listening to a few BIS recordings that frankly put Chandos to shame.

So ...to this release. Of course I would absolutely love to be able to declare it's the best thing ever ... but it really isn't. The recording is, once again, peculiar; Chandos sound engineers seem to have a problem getting the mikes in the correct positions. While this recording is much better than the truly grim Holst volume two (The Planets), this time around the soundstage is so dense, and the brass section is massively in your face.

This doesn't work at all with Vaughan Williams. It does, I admit, offer up a different reading of the works, but given that reading's wrong there's not much point. The string section is great in places - uber-crisp violins sound amazing, but they also sound like they're the final layer of a Phil Spector wall of sound.

As for the surround mix - it isn't very surround. It's glorified stereo, so all the added advantages of separation are lost.

In terms of the actual performance, I'm not sure what Hickox brings to these pieces. Someone else has already noted that they don't match the wonder that is the Previn recordings. Basically for some reason Hickox takes a rather pedestrian approach. Of course there's an obvious explanation - musicians absolutely hate playing the Pastoral ... it's notorious for being an easy crowd pleaser that doesn't offer much to the performer. And I suppose it would be hard to argue that we haven't all become rather over exposed to it. Still, if you're going to commit to a recording, it seems rather odd to approach it with a sense of over familiarity and fatigue.

Additionally, Hickox doesn't manage to keep on top of the tempo, so it lags and lingers. Truth is no conductor has an easy time with the Pastoral, but I had very high expectations of Hickox ...

I haven't heard the rest of the Hickox/Williams SACDs, but now I doubt I'll bother to pick them up. This recording has functioned as a deterrent.

This is another excellent disc from Handley's RVW cycle for Chandos, but not as outstanding as the 2nd or 4th.

The third is an elusive piece but Hickox and the LSO manage to present tension alongside radiance, nobility and light alongside darkness and tragedy in a piece awash with emotional ambiguity as well as bitonality. The result is excellent, but for once in this series, not quite as convincing as Previn's recording for RCA with the same orchestra. Previn's performance also seems better judged as sound, though it can't boast the superb richness of the new Chandos. What I mean by that first comment is that Previn gets little balances just right, like the appropriate toughness in the strings at times (whereas Hickox's are consistently rich), the way the trumpet is placed at just the tight distance in the second (in Chandos' second movement you're more likely to remark on some off-stage door and floor noises), the lightness of touch in the Moderato movement and the soprano's first entrance in the last movement (here just a bit too full and forward).

As you'd expect, Hickox and Chandos get a lot else spot on, - the way the flute duets with the triangle in the 2nd Norfolk Rhapsody is great music and great recording. But the strings are "held back" a little in the same piece, which adds to the tension but doesn't feel quite right in being maintained almost throughout the piece. The first (better known) rhapsody is more successful (though even here I detected a slight distortion in the right speaker at one point).

What really bugged me though was the programming of the Running Set, - it follows the Symphony's tense, sighing, ambiguously beautiful close by a bare two seconds and romps away as a dance piece. Totally inappropriate and unintelligent (fun piece though it is). Yes, I know you can program it out, but it would have been so easy to program a decent silence in and put the "Set" first on the disc.

I know this review sounds a bit picky but it does have to be compared not only to the Previn performance but also to the performance, sound and programming given to this team's own fourth and second. The great is the enemy of the very good here, because if I'd never heard the Hickox/Chandos 4th, I'd probably have given this very good third a 5 but I'll be a mean old sod and go for 4 for the reasons given above.

I'd say the highlight here, indeed a good enough reason for purchase, is the premiere recording of the Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2! Beautifully tuneful and melancholy, with wonderful orchestration. The ending is remarkably evocative and distinctive, not in the least because the piece slowly winds down over about 3 minutes - not unusual for Vaughan Williams perhaps, but it is the elements involved: a beautiful-yet-bleak rolling motif in the violas (? - wish I could find a score) above which plaintive solos are heard, the music slowly moving through interesting harmonies and finally settling to a close on an unexpected major chord, though not a tierce de picardie. You can listen to the whole thing on youtube (and it is the same recording, being the only one!) to preview it before buying if need be!