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Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony [Hybrid SACD]

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

~ Gerald Finley (Baritone), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Composer), Richard Hickox (Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Susan Gritton (Soprano)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Price:	�13.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

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Product details

Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Richard Hickox
Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Audio CD (29 Jan 2007)
Please Note: Requires SACD-compatible hardware
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Hybrid SACD, SACD
Label: Chandos
ASIN: B000MEYHGC
Other Editions: MP3 Download

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 115,322 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples

Song Title Artist Time Price

1. The Wasps, Aristophanic Suite: The Wasps: Aristophanic Suite: Overture Richard Hickox 9:58 Album Only

2. Symphony No. 1, "A Sea Symphony": I. Song for all Seas, all Ships Gerald Finley 19:06 Album Only

3. Symphony No. 1, "A Sea Symphony": II. On the Beach at Night, alone Richard Hickox 10:55 Album Only

4. Symphony No. 1, "A Sea Symphony": III. Scherzo: The Waves Susan Gritton 7:54 �0.59

5. Symphony No. 1, "A Sea Symphony": IV. The Explorers Richard Hickox 28:23 Album Only

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Customer Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT QUITE GOOD ENOUGH TO SEE OFF THE BEST, 3 April 2007

By	Klingsor Tristan (Suffolk) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Apr�s ce-ci le d�luge, 5 Jan 2009

By	Steen Mencke "s.mencke dk" (Denmark) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 I felt he often navigated the corners a bit too fast with insufficient regard for the native colours (de mortuis nihil nisi bene ... and all that, I apologize), but among his compatriots he almost 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 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 their all for Sir Andrew Davis a decade and a half ago. The largo has an almost icy beauty that outdoes all competition, but the acid test for any recording of VW's first, to me, is the swell of the orchestra in the finale to 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 may restrict 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 my co-reviewer, I find the recorded sound to be very adequate, in places positively impressive, 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 is, is 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.

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