The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Volume 2

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Musically, there's some vintage RVW here, especially much of the score for 49th Parallel, which was written alongside the Fifth Symphony. …there's plenty to admire in the BBC Philharmonic's... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2004, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Aug 2004
Catalogue No: CHAN10244
Label: Chandos
Series: Movies
Length: 70 minutes

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

This release includes a digital booklet

Chandos - Downloads at MP3 Prices

Special offer ends: 22/05/2024

Vaughan Williams: 49th Parallel

Work length38:41

$18.00

$23.35

$27.20

Rumon Gamba, BBC Philharmonic, Merryn Gamba, Emily Gray

I. Prelude. Opening Titles

Track length2:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

II. Prologue

Track length11:20

$3.00

$3.85

$3.20

III. Control Room Alert

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Hudson Bay Post

Track length1:27

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

V. Looting the Store

Track length0:47

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

VI. Death of Kühnecke

Track length1:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

VIIa. Hutterite Settlement. Anna's Volkslied

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

VIIb. Hutterite Settlement. The Wheat Harvest

Track length1:48

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

VIII. Winnipeg I

Track length2:50

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

IX. Winnipeg II

Track length1:08

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

X. Nazi March

Track length3:15

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XI. Indian Music I

Track length0:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XII. Indian Music II

Track length1:01

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XIII. Indian Music III

Track length0:46

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XIV. Nazis on the run and the Lake in the Mountains

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XV. Prelude. Closing Titles

Track length2:15

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

Vaughan Williams: The Dim Little Island

Work length7:38

$2.00

$2.60

$2.40

Rumon Gamba, BBC Philharmonic, Martin Hindmarsh

Vaughan Williams: The England of Elizabeth Suite

Work length24:19

$6.00

$7.80

$8.80

Rumon Gamba, BBC Philharmonic, Chethams Chamber Choir

I. Titles - Street Scene - Countryside

Track length9:41

$2.00

$2.60

$2.40

II. Books - Seamen - Dance

Track length3:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

III. Stratford - Maps - Red Indians

Track length5:24

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Treasures - New Houses

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

V. King's College - River Avon - Final Scenes

Track length3:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

Reviews
Explore

Reviews

November 2004

Musically, there's some vintage RVW here, especially much of the score for 49th Parallel, which was written alongside the Fifth Symphony. …there's plenty to admire in the BBC Philharmonic's typically full-blooded playing, and Rumon Gamba has the knack of conjuring real atmosphere from the notes on the page.

2010

Directed by Michael Powell and written by Emeric Pressburger and Rodney Ackland, 49thParallel (1941) was the Ministry of Information's only feature film, its plot of five stranded Nazi U-boat crewmen journeying through Canada to the haven of the then neutral United States – designed, in Powell's words, 'to scare the pants off the Americans and bring them into the war'.
Vaughan Williams's film score was the first of 11 he wrote between 1941 and 1958.
It was a challenge that evidently stoked his imagination, for inspiration runs high throughout this 39-minute sequence fashioned by Stephen Hogger. The unforgettable, nobly flowing 'Prelude' accompanies both the opening and closing titles, and enthusiasts will enjoy spotting thematic and stylistic links with masterworks to come (including Symphonies Nos 5-7 and Second String Quartet).
The present suite from The England ofElizabeth (written in the autumn of 1955 for a British Transport Commission documentary) adds eight minutes to Mathieson's three-movement adaptation (familiar to many from Previn's 1968 LSO account). It is, as annotator Michael Kennedy observes, a splendidly vital and inventive achievement. In the section depicting Tintern Vaughan Williams quotes a theme from his unpublished tone-poem of 1906, The Solent (the tune also crops up in his first and last symphonies), and it's soon followed by a haunting passage for choir alone.
Sandwiched between these two is a partial reconstruction of VW's amiable 1949 score for The Dim Little Island, a 10-minute short commissioned by the Central Office of Information (which also featured the composer in the role of narrator). It borrows heavily from VW's own Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus and even incorporates a verse of that self-same melody sung by a solo tenor.
Rumon Gamba draws a polished and wholehearted response from all involved. The Chandos recording has striking body and lustre; exemplary presentation, too. Very strongly recommended.

Offer,The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Volume 2

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue