Vaughan Williams: A Song of Thanksgiving

“The sole CD premiere is the 1955 On Wenlock Edge by George Maran, a German-based American tenor - pleasant-toned enough but distinctly previous in enunciation, no match for Pears/Britten, or more recent versions.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ***

“Massachusetts-born George Maran's 1955 Decca recording of On Wenlock Edge… an uncommonly sensitive and intimate rendering… there's no disputing the intoxicating spell cast by dedicatee Sir Henry Wood's October 1938 Columbia recording of the sublime Serenade to Music.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“No one else conveys that sense of dignified but profound suffering Adrian Boult sees and focuses so admirably in the Second Movement and finale of his 1949 recording.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008

“Although it was Boult who premiered VW's awesome Sixth Symphony, his white-hot February 1949 account with the LSO wasn't in fact the work's début recording – that honour fell to Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic (who pipped their British counterparts to the post by just two days). The return to the catalogue of Boult's legendary version – last available on an identically programmed Great Recordings of the Century anthology (EMI) – is a cause for celebration, especially in such a vivid transfer (if fractionally hollow in the bass), and so modestly priced to boot. Like Stokowski's scarcely less thrilling realisation, the performance offers us the opportunity to hear VW's original Scherzo. This has been allotted a separate track at the end of the symphony, its place taken by the same team's February 1950 recording of the composer's revision (not an ideal arrangement, perhaps). Whether the performance as a whole entirely displaces Sir Adrian's marvellous 1953 Decca version with the LPO (available in a disappointingly rough transfer on Belart) is open to debate, but both interpretations comprehensively outflank Sir Adrian's New Philharmonia stereo remake for EMI in terms of fiery concentration and sheer guts.
Written in response to a commission from the BBC in 1943 for a work to celebrate the defeat of Hitler's Germany, A Song of Thanksgiving was first broadcast shortly after VE Day. This commercial recording followed in December 1951.
The work (which is scored for soprano, narrator, chorus and orchestra) has a smattering of decent invention (including, from around 4'30", fleeting echoes of the Sixth's second movement), but overall it's hardly representative of VW at his most inspired.
Last, and certainly not least, comes a wholly cherishable account (from October 1952) of TheLark Ascending, with Jean Pougnet a wonderfully silky toned, humane soloist. Boult's accompaniment, too, is a model of selfless dedication and intuitive rapture. For some, it remains, quite simply, the most tenderly unaffected and profoundly moving Lark on disc, though the string timbre on that earlier EMI restoration is much preferable to this over-processed newcomer.
None the less, a most valuable VW reissue.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Best has a fine sense of VW as a dramatic composer, bringing tremendous urgency to Dona Nobis Pacem and real passion to the Five Mystical Songs. Best's Serenade to Music is the original, not least in matching the star quality of the singers, but also in its magical atmosphere. He equally evokes VW's sensuous side, not only in Flos Campi but also in the Magnificat with its ecstatic writing for female voices.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 *****

“Performances like these don’t come along very often; each one is an absolute winner, and with rich, atmospheric recording quality the satisfaction is of a very special quality” CD Review

“The performances are splendid, graced by such soloists as Thomas Allen (Dona nobis pacem, Five Mystical Songs) and Bryn Terfel (The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains)..The rapturous Serenade to Music has a cast of 16 singers fit to rival those of the original recording. Anne Dawson’s top note on the word “music” is spine-tingling.” Sunday Times, 1st June 2008 ****

“The symphonies are the bedrock of the set; this was Boult's second complete cycle on disc, and the benefits of his career-long immersion in these scores is audible...Boult gives [The Pilgrim's Progress] remarkable breadth and transcendence. His account of Job is also extraordinary, as are the performances of the Tallis Fantasia, the 16-voice version of the Serenade to Music and In the Fen Country; the list could go on and on.” The Guardian, 28th March 2013 *****

“A convincing and deeply moving showcase… exceptional value… it’s scope breathtaking. This is the essential set, and if you're at all drawn to VW you might as well buy the whole damn show now - because sooner or later you're going to anyway.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2008 *****