The year 2022 was marked by the 150e anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. This English composer who died in 1958 is very present in our musical landscape, but he remains largely unknown and undervalued.
Were the British really right to make Edward Elgar the standard-bearer of their music? Without denying the effectiveness of cello concerto and variations Enigma nor the beauty of Sea Picturesthose who fear a priori the pomp of English music have every reason to take more interest in a quartet of creators formed by Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Arnold, William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The purpose of this overview on the occasion of the 150e anniversary of the birth of Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is to provide leads and keys to tame the universe of this pupil of Charles Stanford and Hubert Parry, who also studied with Bruch in Berlin and with Ravel in Paris.
Starting point
There is in the production of Ralph Vaughan Williams a work which should be part of the heritage of any music lover, in the same way as the 5e Symphony of Beethoven or the Four Seasons by Vivaldi. it’s about the Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas tallis, a score for strings. In this directory, it is, with The transfigured night by Schoenberg, the most poignant and incandescent work in the repertoire.
Composed in 1910, it is written for two string orchestras and a quartet. The theme is the air of the psalm Why Fumeth in Fnight (1567) by Thomas Tallis. Vaughan Williams had discovered it, because he presided over the first edition, in 1906, for the Anglican Church, of theEnglish Hymnala collection of hymns.
What is fascinating about Tallis Fantasia, lasting about fifteen minutes, it is the intensity and the mesh of strings that weave a web of sound like a spider’s web, with extraordinary effects of volume and relief. This work has known legendary interpretations that are very difficult to match — John Barbirolli (EMI-Warner), Dimitri Mitropoulos (Sony) and Constantin Silvestri (EMI-Warner) — but it has many excellent performers.
Another work of about fifteen minutes is very popular: The Lark Ascending (The flight of the lark), for violin and orchestra. We sometimes find these two works by Vaughan William grouped together on a CD which can prove to be an excellent introduction to his music. Several of these programs are recommendable and can be found on on-demand listening platforms: Neville Marriner at Decca, Bryden Thomson at Chandos, Barry Wordsworth at Argo and Andrew Manze’s most recent CD at Onyx. The great classics of Vaughan Williams which overlap regularly are The Lark Ascending, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Fantasia on Greensleeves, Norfolk Rhapsody noh1, Five Variants of “ Dives and Lazarus » (with harp) and In the Fen Country. What beautiful music.
With all of this you have a portrait of Vaughan Williams in the art of miniature and English pastoral.
Vaughan Williams and the Symphony
Like Beethoven, Vaughan Williams composed nine symphonies, but almost “in reverse”, since we start with the most grandiose to move towards something very particular and more intimate.
One could imagine that the gateway to Vaughan Williams is “A Sea Symphony”, spectacular Symphony noh 1, composed in 1910 on poems by Walt Whitman. A rare occurrence, this grandiose and powerful work will be performed on May 20 at the Maison symphonique under the direction of Francis Choinière.
But the nectar of Vaughan Williams’ production is nestled in the 5e Symphony, composed between 1938 and 1943. The composer created it in June 1943. A disc presenting the archive of this creation was published a few days ago by Somm (reference Ariadne 5019). What sound message is hidden behind the slow movement of this 5e Symphony, one of the most intense creations imaginable? The disastrous destiny of Europe or the happiness of a composer in his sixties who has just met the one who will become his muse and second wife, Ursula Wood? It is this sadness and this mixed optimism, at a time when in Europe everything is at stake, which are upsetting.
More conflicting, the Sixth (1948), was described as a “symphony of war”. Vaughan Williams tirelessly denied any programmatic intention, but it is a composition that takes the guts.
In the corpus, we must note the fascinating strangeness of the Symphonies nbone 7 and 9. The Seventh, “Antartica”, is clearly a programmatic work, in which the icy and desolate grandeur is translated in a fascinating way. The evocative and atmospheric quality is staggering, thanks also to the addition of certain instruments (vibraphone, celesta, xylophone and wind machine). In the Ninth (1956-1957), Vaughan Williams continues in this sound and harmonic exploratory vein, these unusual worlds, with three saxophones and a flügelhorn.
Many complete symphonies compete with each other, with three new ones (Andrew Manze, Martyn Brabbins and Mark Elder) just for this commemorative year. The solid references are André Previn (RCA) and Leonard Slatkin (RCA).
Choral music and rarities
We will not be surprised by a propensity to compose religious music on the part of the publisher of theEnglish Hymnal. Current theme: Christmas, with the great cantata Hodie, a little pompous. We will therefore favor the disc engraved in 2005 by Richard Hickox for Chandos: Fantasia on Christmas Carols, On Christmas Night and The First Nowell.
Within the choral production, we favor the cantata Dona Nobis Pacem for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra on texts from the Bible and Walt Whitman, a sort of musical response (in 1936) to the rise of fascism in Europe. It is a premonitory work, to ward off fate, which is part of a pacifist lineage including the War Requiem by Britten and A Child of our Time by Tippett. Andrew Litton and Robert Spano gave great versions of Dona Nobis Pacem.
The unknown jewel, which once appeared on the Fidelio label, can be unearthed on on-demand listening platforms if you type in “Vaughan Williams Quink”. The vocal ensemble program quink gathers choral music a cappella by Vaughan Williams and Finzi and is now called Songs and Elegies.
Another must-see is a ballet entitled Job: A Mask for Dancing, clearly less well served by the disc than the symphonies. There is however something to shine in the nine scenes including “Satan’s dance of triumph” or in the minuets, pavanes, galliards which characterize the children of Job. Avoid the Boult version at Everest, with cuts, to favor that of Boult at EMI, and even more so Lloyd-Jones at Naxos or Andrew Davis at Chandos.
The evocative power of Symphony noh 7which finds its source in the film Scott of the Antarcticand the eloquence of Job remind us that Vaughan Williams was also a “composer-narrator” perfectly cut out for the cinema. It was in 1940 that he was able to transpose his pacifist ideals of Dona Nobis Pacem by composing the score of 49th Parallel, Ministry of Information propaganda film directed by Michael Powell from a screenplay by Emeric Pressburger highlighting the cruelty of fascism. He returned for other feature films of the same ilk, such Coastal Command (1942), The Flemish Farm (1943) and Stricken Peninsula (1945).
After the war, he will only compose six film scores. We can approach this contribution with volume 1 of The Film Music of Vaughan Williams by Rumon Gamba at Chandos, with the most important war score (49th Parallel) and the movie The England of Elizabeth from 1955.
It remains to mention melodies, chamber music and concertos. We can cite the cycle for tenor, piano and quartet On Wenlock Edge (1909) composed after three months with Ravel. Vaughan William qualified On Wenlock Edge of “bad attack of French fever”. But the cycle was maintained in the repertoire, which is more difficult for the superb Serenade to Musicfor 16 voices, violin and orchestra.
For the rest, we will give an ear to the Phantasy Quinteyoupretty oboe concerto of 1944 and we note Vaughan Williams’ interest in the viola. The latter is perfectly documented by Lawrence Power and Martyn Brabbins, who couple at Hyperion the Suite for viola and small orchestra and Flos Campi for viola, silent choir and orchestra.