{"id":33980,"date":"2023-10-12T17:54:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T15:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=3937"},"modified":"2023-10-13T10:40:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T08:40:02","slug":"which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is your favourite Vaughan Williams work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We asked nine experts to tell us about their all time favourite VW piece <\/p>

By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 12 October 2023 at 15:54 PM<\/p>

\n\n

We asked nine musicians, writers and film-makers who have found themselves involved in the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/a> to tell us about their all-time favourite VW work\u2026<\/p>\n

The best of Vaughan Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Favourite Vaughan Williams works<\/h2>\n
Richard Hickox, conductor\nThe Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nThe Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is a huge challenge for any conductor, with 42 solo roles, chorus, orchestra and lots of offstage effects. I was asked to do it for Covent Garden in 1997, because it had been premiered there in 1951 \u2013 the premiere was a failure as far as the production was concerned, but everyone knew it was marvellous music.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not an exciting work to rehearse for the orchestra, but once the voices come and you put the work together, it has an extraordinary quality. Vaughan Williams may have been agnostic, but his works have a spiritual radiance, and none more so than this.<\/p>\nHe took 40 years to write it and put his absolute heart into it. For me, it has the essence of VW \u2013 the spiritual quality, drama, the dissonance, the anger. He\u2019s not the quintessential pastoral composer that people think he was. He was an angry, passionate and explosive composer.<\/p>\nAs well as being one of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/best-english-composers\/\">famous English composers<\/a> of all time, Vaughan Williams is one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/50-greatest-composers-all-time\/\">best composers ever<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Tony Palmer, director of the Vaughan Williams film O Thou Transcendent<\/em><\/strong><br\/>\nA Sea Symphony<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-vaughan-williamss-symphony-no-1-sea-symphony\/\">A Sea Symphony<\/em><\/strong><\/a> *is* Vaughan Williams. It\u2019s a self-portrait and it\u2019s muscular, visionary, brilliantly orchestrated, hugely enigmatic, magisterial and sweeping. It pulls together three main strands of English music that he aspired to: the great Tudor composers, the folk tradition \u2013 particularly the tune \u2018Captain\u2019s Apprentice\u2019 which you hear over and over again in the Sea Symphony<\/em> \u2013 and of course the English Hymnal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-vaughan-williamss-sea-symphony\/\">The best recordings of Vaughan Williams\u2019s Sea Symphony<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAll these elements come into life in the Sea Symphony<\/em> on a vast scale. You literally have the wind taken out of your sails. And how anybody reacted to those first brass chords at the beginning \u2013 they must have been knocked flat when it was first done in Leeds. VW is in all his magisterial glory in this work: a highly intellectual, highly disciplined, tall man flexing his muscles.<\/p>\n<h3>Tasmin Little, violinist<br\/>\n<\/strong>The Lark Ascending<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nI really have to go for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/four-of-the-best-recordings-of-vaughan-williamss-the-lark-ascending\/\">The Lark Ascending<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, not just because of the work itself but because I have so many memories of times that I\u2019ve played it, not least at the Last Night of the Proms in 1995 and when I recorded it in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Williams.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nEg5fMNNPZE?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\"\/><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a piece that clearly speaks very directly to a lot of people \u2013 I wonder if there\u2019s an analogy that people find in the concept of this vulnerable little bird making its way through the skies of life through different situations and then hopefully finding its way higher and higher to heaven. First of all you get this bird on its own with its beautiful song but then, while Vaughan Williams does use gentle harmonies, the work is built and orchestrated to quite a grand scale.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/hear-vaughan-williams-lark-ascending-as-it-was-originally-writtenf-or-piano-and-violin-duo\/\">Hear Vaughan Williams\u2019 \u2018Lark Ascending\u2019 as it was originally written: for piano and violin duo<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/when-was-the-first-performance-recording-broadcast-and-proms-performance-of-vaughan-williamss-the-lark-ascending\/\">When was the first performance, recording, broadcast and Proms performance of Vaughan Williams\u2019s The Lark Ascending?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThis juxtaposition of the idea of this lone bird and then the power of the orchestra, I find very moving in itself. It\u2019s quite a spiritual thing, though, and difficult to put into words.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Andrew Davis, conductor<br\/>\n<\/strong>Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nI\u2019ve got so many favourites. I\u2019m very fond of Hodie<\/em> as it reminds me of the time I met Vaughan Williams \u2013 as a treble at Watford Grammar School, I went up to Maida Vale, where he was sat in the balcony, looking very baggy and with his hearing aid in.<\/p>\nBut the real favourite is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/vaughan-williamss-fantasia-on-a-theme-of-thomas-tallis\/\">Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. This is partly because, based on the Tallis hymn that VW rescued from oblivion, it has a connection to the English church music that has been very much part of my life. But it is also a very mystical piece that summons up so many things for me \u2013 the West Country that I love, and that melancholic Englishness that\u2019s so wonderful.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/how-vaughan-williamss-mad-tallis-fantasia-entranced-at-its-premiere\/\">How Vaughan Williams\u2019s \u2018mad\u2019 Tallis Fantasia entranced at its premiere<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C825NndQ7d0?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Brian Kay, director of Leith Hill Musical Festival<br\/>\n<\/strong>Serenade to Music<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nAs it is my privilege to be the conductor the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lhmf.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leith Hill Musical Festival<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 standing where the founder-conductor Ralph Vaughan Williams stood for over 50 years and indeed, conducting each year from his own antique music stand \u2013 there are many great works from which I could choose a favourite.<\/p>\nThe monumental Sea Symphony<\/em>, for example \u2013 or the Five Mystical Songs<\/em>, which are such a joy to sing and to conduct, or even the simple lyricism of the song Linden Lea<\/em>. But in the end, it would have to be the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/a-guide-to-vaughan-williamss-serenade-to-music-and-its-best-recordings\/\">Serenade to Music<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"BBC Proms 2019 - Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JJDrEvH4c08?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nIt\u2019s no surprise that Rachmaninov was deeply moved when he attended the first performance: it is surely one of the most romantic works ever written. The opening orchestral introduction alone is enough to send me into paroxysms of delight and the two occasions when the soprano (originally Isobel Baillie) soars to the top A at the words \u2018sweet harmony\u2019 are moments of pure magic.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Vernon Handley, conductor<br\/>\nJob: A Masque for Dancing<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nOne work that has never been fully appreciated and continues to be neglected by concert promoters is the Partita for Double String Orchestra<\/em> \u2013 unlike the popular Tallis Fantasia<\/em>, it\u2019s the work of a still-enquiring mind.<\/p>\nHowever, for me it\u2019s Job<\/em> that follows almost the whole of Vaughan Williams\u2019s temperament and output. It\u2019s brilliantly orchestrated, it has a marvellous harmonic scheme and it makes the dramatic point that, no matter what the enemy becomes, Job<\/em> goes on \u2013 Vaughan Williams himself never did bow down to whatever happened in life.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GlGjFynWFUw?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"\/><\/p>\nOne thing VW hated was talking about his work, and he wanted everything to be felt musically and qualified musically and not necessarily turned into theatre. But what I love about Job<\/em> is that it is pure theatre, but the music overrides that, so it\u2019s never sentimental and never melodramatic.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>John Bridcut, maker of BBC Four series The Passions of Vaughan Williams<br\/>\n<\/em><\/strong>Three Shakespeare Songs<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nI\u2019ve only discovered the Three Shakespeare Songs<\/em> recently. People praise Vaughan Williams\u2019s wonderful orchestral music but the way he writes for the voice, particularly in choral works, can be a bit formulaic. But these songs are extraordinary.<\/p>\nThey\u2019re beautiful but untypical of VW \u2013 he never stopped turning his hand to new forms, new ideas that, for an 80 year old, is incredible. Because they\u2019re miniatures, where so often Vaughan Williams is very large-scale, they\u2019re also quite refreshing.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SS2hA7aanj8?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\"\/><\/p>\nHe was asked by Armstrong Gibbs to write some test pieces for the British Federation of Music Festivals for a performance at the Festival Hall in 1951. Initially, VW sent a rather rude note back saying it would be better to use an established test piece.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/classical-music-inspired-shakespeare\/\">Classical music inspired by Shakespeare<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/shakespeare-music\/\">How Shakespeare\u2019s words inspired music<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/romeo-and-juliet-music\/\">Six of the best: musical settings of Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-recordings-of-elgars-falstaff\/\">The best recordings of Elgar\u2019s\u00a0Falstaff<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSome months later Gibbs was ill in bed and they were pondering what to do when a fat envelope arrived with the manuscript for the Three Shakespeare Songs<\/em>, saying\u00a0\u2018Dear Armstrong, here are three Shakespeare settings; do what you like with them\u2019.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Anthony Payne, composer<br\/>\n<\/strong>Symphonies Nos 3 & 6<\/strong><\/h3>\nVaughan Williams\u2019s symphonies inhabit totally different sound worlds and yet you can tell they are all by him. I\u2019d hate to just choose one but If pressed, I\u2019d choose Nos 3 and 6.<\/p>\nNo. 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-vaughan-williamss-symphony-no-3-pastoral-symphony\/\">Vaughan Williams\u2019 Pastoral Symphony<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, has come under a lot of abuse, people saying it\u2019s cowpat music. In fact the irony is that it\u2019s about war-ravaged landscapes. And it\u2019s a deeply original work \u2013 a four-movement symphony with practically no fast music.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-vaughan-williamss-pastoral-symphony\/\">The best recordings of Vaughan Williams\u2019s Pastoral Symphony<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nWhen I was a student, it was said that VW wasn\u2019t a great orchestrator. This is nonsense \u2013 his orchestration is perfectly attuned to what he had to say, and the Pastoral Symphony<\/em>\u2019s sound-world is quite different from his other symphonies \u2013 a strange luminosity with at the same time dark and inward quality.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-pastoral-music-5-works-inspired-by-the-countryside\/\">Best pastoral music: five great works inspired by the countryside<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSymphony No. 6 is one of those \u2018war-torn\u2019 pieces which suddenly, towards the close of the first movement, reverts to the old style VW: there\u2019s this great, singing tune which comes out in glorious full orchestra. Then all of a sudden it\u2019s as if he realises that this is no longer possible: this romantic theme reaches a catastrophic climax and the whole thing ends in limbo.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s wrong to say this is a \u2018war symphony\u2019. It\u2019s about something much bigger, a spiritual desolation, and VW faced up to it. He was getting on and could see death in the middle distance. He\u2019s not a man of conventional religion, so he had his own demons to face.\u2019<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Simon Heffer, journalist and author of Vaughan Williams: a Biography<\/em><br\/>\nSymphony No. 6<\/strong><\/h3>\nI first heard the first-movement theme from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-vaughan-williamss-symphony-no-6\/\">Vaughan William\u2019s Symphony No. 6<\/strong><\/a> when I was about ten in a music lesson at school, and I thought it was wonderful. When I went up to University in the mid to late \u201970s I suddenly got interested in VW and I started to explore his other symphonies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/which-is-the-best-vaughan-williams-symphony\/\">Which is the best Vaughan Williams Symphony?<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBut I soon realised that the Sixth was head and shoulders above the other eight in terms of its originality, its quality and its ability to engage and move me. I have a fascination with the 1940s and to me it\u2019s music redolent of that period \u2013 not just because of the jazz syncopation, with the saxophone solo in the Scherzo<\/em> and the link with Ken \u2018Snake Hips\u2019 Johnson [Britain\u2019s first black swing bandleader who was killed in a bomb on the Caf\u00e9 de Paris].<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QFzWCXqQriU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nI felt it reflected the war even though VW said it wasn\u2019t a war symphony. And I thought it was a very understated, stiff-upper lip, very sad piece of music. It\u2019s a last look back at a world that has only just survived the Great War and is not going to survive the Second: a vision of an England that\u2019s disappearing forever.<\/p>\nMany people think the key to the symphony is the 11 or 12-minute pianissimo<\/em> at the end. But I think the key is the first movement with its fantastic E\u202fmajor theme at the end. Although it\u2019s in a major key, there\u2019s great sadness and a sense of loss in the music.\u2019<\/p>\nRELATED ARTICLES<\/u><\/p>\n\u2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/countryfile-celebrate-ralph-vaughan-williams-birthday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Countryfile to celebrate Ralph Vaughan Williams\u2019s birthday<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/article\/nine-things-you-might-not-know-about-ralph-vaughan-williams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nine things you might not know about Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\u2022 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/topic\/ralph-vaughan-williams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A guide to Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We asked nine experts to tell us about their all time favourite VW piece <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":33981,"template":"","categories":[1,17,99],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"9"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work.png",1118,748,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work-300x201.png",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work-768x514.png",768,514,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work-1024x685.png",800,535,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work.png",1118,748,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/10\/which-is-your-favourite-vaughan-williams-work.png",1118,748,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"We asked nine experts to tell us about their all time favourite VW piece","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/33980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}