Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 in E minor

Recorded: Cheltenham Festival, 7 July 1972 (Vaughan Williams), Barking Town Hall, 26 November 1969 (Hadley, Bax), Maida Vale Studios, 12 December 1966 (Berg)

Sir Adrian Boult was Vaughan Williams's close friend and one of his greatest advocates.

The broadcast in excellent stereo from the 1972 Cheltenham Festival marks the composers 100th anniversary with wonderful performances of Symphony No.6 (Boult gave the first performance of this work in 1947) and the ever popular Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. Boult recorded these works in the studio many times but these are live performances and the occasion is palpably felt.

There are two short fillers in stereo from Patrick Hadley (celebrating Vaughan Williams's 70th birthday) and Arnold Bax with his warmly atmospheric 'Mediterranean' both recorded in the studio in 1969.

As a substantial bonus and also as a 'must' for Boult collectors is a very rare broadcast made in 1966 in stereo of Berg's 'Lyric Suite'. Boult gave a pioneering performance of Berg's 'Wozzeck' in 1933 and therefore it is of particular interest to hear his interpretation of the three movement 'Lyric Suite', one of the composers most approachable works.

Booklet: German, English, French

Single release of the 60th anniversary-box.

Sir Colin Davis, the “quiet star” on the list of the top international conductors, assumed his position as Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in the autumn of 1983. He enriched the repertoire of the orchestra, inter alia, with works from the late British romantic era, as documented by the two recorded compositions by Sir Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” number today among the most important symphonic works ever to emerge from England. Friends and other persons in the composer’s inner circle are concealed behind the mysterious abbreviations in the titles of the individual variations, all of whom Elgar portrays in musical terms.

With its acerbic musical utterance and its experimental treatment of both harmony and sound, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 6 (completed in 1947) attests to the horrors of the recently ended war, marking, however, concurrently a phase of new beginnings and turning away from established conventions.

Sir Colin Davis left an indelible imprint for nine years long on the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”, one of the most popular works from the late romantic era in Great Britain.

Vaughan Williams valued the opinions of close friends on his new works, even if he did not always follow the advice given. In the early years, it was to his first wife Adeline as well as to fellow composers George Butterworth and Gustav Holst that he would turn. Later, the circle of advisers widened, to include Sir Arthur Bliss, Gerald Finzi and Herbert Howells, the conductors Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargent and musical friends such as R.O. Morris, Steuart Wilson, Ruth Dyson and Roy Douglas. These and many others were invited to a ‘play-through’ of Vaughan Williams’ new work. Such first hearings were arranged for piano, or two pianos, and central to many of these performances in the 1940s and 1950s was Michael Mullinar (1895 - 1973). Mullinar was an expert accompanist, teacher and composer who would on occasion venture into solo repertoire.

Vaughan Williams sketches for the Sixth Symphony and Michael Mullinar’s two-piano arrangement with various interpolations by the composer can be found in the British Library. Alan Rowlands edited the two-piano arrangement for this recording making use of the final orchestral published version to fill in any gaps. Thus we can hear for the first time what a ‘play-through’ actually sounded like.

Recorded in 1953