Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD, SACD]

A highly recommendable recording by the late Richard Hickox. The CD stereo is good and the SACD stereo marginally better- not heard the surround. I must confess that although I value this I do actually prefer Haitink and the EMI Boult both of which are I feel more atmospheric where it counts- The ancient Decca Boult takes some beating though despite its now very dated mono sound. T his is probably the finest modern recording

I have to admit that I have not always seen eye to eye with this late lamented conductor. In many of his recordings of the foreign repertoire (and, for some strange reason, in his Elgar too) he often navigated the corners a bit too fast with insufficient regard for colour and expressivety (de mortuis nihil nisi bene ... and all that, I apologize); among his compatriots, though - Elgar sadly not included - he invariably swam like a fish, and with Vaughan Williams he arguably made his greatest kills. The universally commended recording of the second symphony was in more than one way one of a kind, and the outings into the world of the rarely heard stageworks always brought many a thrill. Having for years enjoyed Hickox's early disc of the "Sea Symphony" (1990, Virgin) I had high hopes for this issue, and much to everybody's praise I was not disappointed for a second during 4577 seconds of exquisite playing.

Every detail of an often awkward score is there presented in its best possible light, every shade of beauty and emotion drawn from Whitman's ebullient texts by an excellent singer duo, perhaps the best I have encountered since Roocroft/Hampson gave it their all for Sir Andrew Davis a decade and a half ago. The largo has an almost icy beauty to it that outdoes all competition, but, to me, the acid test for any recording of VW's first has to be the swell of the orchestra in the finale after the words: "O Thou transcendent"; if total inundation does not immediately follow I, for one, am not amused. Hickox builds up the climax to perfection, and though the live recording restricts the orchestra sound a bit the effect is still colossal, and, unlike the above mentioned Davis recording, Hickox's soloists are not mared by a strange boxed-in sound that is the probable result of them being recorded in a separate - and somewhat smaller - room from the orchestra. All in all, unlike some of my co-reviewers, I find the recorded sound to be very adequate, in places positively impressive - if a tad confined in the tuttis, and it certainly does not distract from the overall joy of a thoroughly inspired performance, right at the top of my list next to Boult and Sir Andrew Davis. Haitink's version, deeply felt though it indisputably is, is slightly too lumbering for my taste.
The ouverture to "The Wasps" is as witty and eloquent as the author of the play, and the interpretation only enforces the general impression of the greatest care and dedication. Enthusiastically recommended.

As usual for Chandos the SACD track sadly doesn't provide much extra depth or volume compared to the normal CD track. I don't know how BIS conjures up the marvels they have been producing lately ... but one could hope they would share the secret.

This is a very fine performance of VW's Sea Symphony, if not quite enough to efface memories of some of the classics. It's up against pretty fierce competition in the shape of Boult's first recording for Decca with a stunning soprano soloist in Isobel Baillie, though in mono sound, as well as his second recording with EMI which benefits from warm, glorious sound recorded in the old Kingsway Hall. There's also Handley and Haitink to contend with, both also on EMI who seem to come out of this pretty well with three of the top performances on their label.

The sound on the Hickox disc, despite much more recent vintage, is not really up there with Boult 2 or Haitink. This is a live performance given at the Barbican and does suffer from the kind of slightly desiccated sound that hall always seems to produce. Vaughan Williams' orchestra and chorus in full flight or even in some of the quieter passages in the Finale benefits enormously from a bit more bloom, a bit more spaciousness, a bit more room to expand than they get here.

The performance itself would also benefit from a touch more expansiveness, particularly in the opening movement. It lacks both the overwhelming surge of a Boult or a Handley and the symphonic cogency of Haitink. Hickox's enormous experience with choruses means that, in many ways, the movement that comes off best is the Scherzo which flashes and sparkles with great precision and rhythmic alertness in the singing. Those last notes which are left hanging in the air (shamelessly borrowed by VW's own admission from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis) leave the listener with a truly hair-raising sense of expectancy. And that expectancy is largely fulfilled by a profound and moving Finale which genuinely explores the profundity of Walt Whitman's somewhat purple, questing poetry. The soloists, Susan Gritton and Gerald Finley, rise admirably to the challenge of the ecstatic, soaring lines of `O we can wait no longer' before the whole ensemble subsides to the dreamy, pp view of eternity on `O farther sail' at the end.

It's a performance, then, that takes a while to get into its stride. Once there (in the Scherzo and Finale) it is as fine as most. But overall, Boult, Haitink or Handley are still the place to start for this big and glorious work.