Once again, you have hit the nail on the head... except... there is an all-British recording that is unremittingly vicious and bleak: Bryden Thompson and the LSO. The LSO is in top form and recorded in bone-shattering Chandos sound. Dont believe me - listen to the final epilogo fugato ending and restatement of the first theme! No modern recordings come close. It is only surpassed by the Mitropoulos for pure nihilism - in my opinion. Thompson's cycle RVW is grossly neglected and well worth exploring. Yes, he can be loose, but that brings a raw dynamism that is often missing in English recordings of RVW.
@denbigh51
4 жыл бұрын
Yes this recording kicks quite a punch. Listen to that final cord.
@ScotPeacock
4 жыл бұрын
That’s because Bryden wasn’t English; he was Scottish. He could be fabulous. I remember hearing him conduct the RSNO in Prokofiev’s 3rd Symphony, just a few weeks or a couple of months before he died. It was astonishing!
@scottgilesmusic
2 жыл бұрын
Bryden Thomson’s is also my favorite. It’s the clarity of detail and the ferocity of interpretation that get me. An amazing recording and probably the best that this work will ever see.
@twwc960
6 ай бұрын
YES! I'm glad you mentioned it! Thomson's LSO VW 4th was my introduction to the music of Vaughan Williams and it is still my favorite recording. Shattering performance and awesome recorded sound (as is typical for Chandos.) I also love the cover art: Turner's "Shade and Darkness - The Evening of the Deluge" which suits this music perfectly! I have to say, Thomson's Vaughan Williams cycle was not uniformly good, but he really had the measure of the 4th symphony. Easily my favorite.
@paradisi12
2 жыл бұрын
Agree 100%. Berglund and Mitro yep.
@kevinhaskins3949
4 жыл бұрын
Good to know! I have the Slatkin and like it. About Haitink + VW .... what Haitink/LPO did with VW5 (1996 EMI???) is my hands-down fave perf. of that symph (my fave VW symph ). Hint, hint for next video ;)
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
I think Haitink's RVW is the dullest ever!
@tubapress
3 жыл бұрын
I saw Slatkin conduct the 4th with NY Phil in January 1992. It was one of the most exciting performances I have ever attended!
@barrygray8903
4 жыл бұрын
I have the Berglund, Slatkin, Handley, and (argh) Haitink recordings. Haitink seems to be a cursory run - through; the others are excellent; as you mentioned, the Handley is let down by a dry recording with little bloom to the sound and a limited dynamic range. I have seen the Bernstein YPC program where he discusses VW and specifically the fourth symphony. He and the NYPO performed the last movement for the young audience, they appear startled and taken aback by this music.Looking forward to discussions of other VW symphony recordings, particularly 2, 5,7,&9.
@curseofmillhaven1057
4 жыл бұрын
Bless you for recommending the Berglund...his Sixth isn't to be sniffed at either I think (although I really like Davis' version...marvellous engineering by Tony Faulkner in that too).
@bertranddaldy9748
4 жыл бұрын
Mr Hurwitz, you have the happy knack of combining erudition, knowledge , enthusiasm and humour which makes your posts highly entertaining. The only drawback to this is that I will probably spend a fortune on your recommendations! Incidentally, as an Englishman, I agree with many of your points about English critics and Gramophone. I think Bernstein’s view of Elgar, for example, is perfectly valid. Keep up the good work.
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you very much!
@giacomofirpo2477
4 жыл бұрын
Very nice survey! What do you think about the historical recording of Vaughan Williams conducting his own Fourth Symphony with BBC SO?! I think it is from 30's...reissued by naxos...very interesting, in particular for the tempos that the composer required...
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
As I said, a very exciting version.
@ianpunter4486
11 ай бұрын
Is this the occasion when RVW reputedly put down his baton and said "I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant" ?
@Mackeson3
2 жыл бұрын
"It's got your poisonous temper" According to his friend and biographer Michael Kennedy that's what one guy told RVW when he heard it for the first time. People tend to think of RVW as a bumbling gentle old countryman dressed in tweeds , that was certainly not true especially in his younger years. It has been said that when he was nice he was very, very nice but on the other hand he was notorious for his ferocious rages. Apparently after the world premier of the fourth RVW said of it : "Well I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant"
@scottgilesmusic
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, Vaughan Williams said that after someone asked him, incredulously, if he really liked this symphony. 🙄
@jmd555555
3 ай бұрын
Berglund is one of my very favourites for symphonies 4 and 6. Previn's No.8 is my favourite for its magical qualities. I agree about Mitropolous.
@williamlaine2116
7 ай бұрын
Vaughan Williams said of this symphony one of my favorite comments by a composer about his work: "I don't know if I like it, but that's what I meant."
@scottgilesmusic
2 жыл бұрын
True enough, Brits do not always do the best Vaughan Williams. Too often they’re too polite. Nevertheless, my favorite 4th is from a Brit on Chandos; a 1988 release with the late Scot, Bryden Thomson. It is violent yet so exquisitely detailed. You really hear the genius of the composer and conductor in the second subject of the first movement. So many blow this! But our man, Thomson, shows how it’s done.
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
I agree. It's a highlight of that cycle.
@williamwhittle216
4 жыл бұрын
The Mitrpoulos Lp was my first recording of the piece.
@damiangruszczynski7451
4 жыл бұрын
...and Gramophone said that Top Choice for RVW 4th is .... let’s them speak by themselves: The Top Choice LPO / Bernard Haitink (Warner Classics) Bernard Haitink allows Vaughan Williams’s rivetingly cogent symphonic drama to unfold without artifice. There’s no hidden agenda here - and absolutely no want of fire either! - just toweringly eloquent music-making, superlatively captured by the microphones. Drawing glorious playing from the LPO, the great Dutch maestro has given us a Fourth for the ages. ..... Only two months separate two recordings featuring the LPO under Bernard Haitink and Sir Roger Norrington (for EMI and Decca respectively) - and there’s no doubt in my mind as to the clear winner! Haitink’s account pretty much has everything one could desire: unbounded musicality, entrancing wholeness of vision and purposefulness, complemented in turn by orchestral playing of the very highest quality (indeed, the LPO’s response throughout simply blazes with eloquence, trust and conviction). Never forcing the pace nor losing the thread, Haitink lets the music do the the talking, and his utterly engrossing interpretation yields enormous pleasure (his handling of the slow movement is a marvel of profound compassion) Andrew Achenbach I don’t know what to think ?! ;-)
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
Let your ears be the judge. Haitink is a snooze.
@damiangruszczynski7451
4 жыл бұрын
David Hurwitz Also Sprach Dawid !;-)
@ip7116
2 жыл бұрын
Haitink also just chosen as the best version of the 4th on BBC Radio 3.
@damiangruszczynski7451
2 жыл бұрын
@@ip7116 let the ears be our judge /David said/ 😊
@gabrieru1983
4 жыл бұрын
My favourite 4th!!!! Love that CD so much..
@artistinbeziers7916
2 жыл бұрын
Totally excellent video. Thanks David. The Berglund is by a country mile, a sure-fire winner here.
@rsmickeymooproductions4877
4 жыл бұрын
I have Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra /Paul Daniel version on Naxos and its exciting as hell. Very comparable to berglund or slatkin
@2906nico
3 жыл бұрын
Completely agree with everything said.
@RModillo
Жыл бұрын
The recording of RVW conducting the BBC Symphony back in its glory days had very decent mono sound. It is a good snapshot of how nasty the composer wanted it to sound, and is on KZitem.
@RModillo
Жыл бұрын
@@mendax1773 From the horse's mouth. Make of that what you will.
@jerrygennaro7587
4 жыл бұрын
Looking forward to more Vaughan Williams in future. When, or if, you ever get to No. 7, I hope you'll share your thoughts on the "textual" matter of narration between movements vs. no narration. (with Leppard using narration over the music and Previn available without narration in the RCA Navigator series re-issue).
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
Sure I'll get to 7, but I'll give you a taste. The narrations should NOT be included.
@johnwright7749
4 жыл бұрын
Slatkin gets my vote!
@AbdelOveAllhan
Жыл бұрын
The Bernstein also has a sublime version of RVW's Serenade to Music with mostly (?) American singers. Andrew Manze has a firey version of the 4th at the Proms on KZitem.
@AbdelOveAllhan
Жыл бұрын
Just listened to the Manze/BBC/Proms performance again. Astonishing musicianship, superb recording. Manze weilds the orchestra like a broadsword with the deftness of a rapier. The passage leading to the Fuga Finale is breathtaking and the finale itself is worthy of some celestial catastrophe with the last tutti note a cosmic door slamming shut.
@Elitist20
Жыл бұрын
Well, this has put the cat among the pigeons! I have the Haitink LPO version, and I thought it was pretty thrilling - I'll have to explore the others.
@frgraybean
4 жыл бұрын
My favorites: Slatkin, Bernstein, Davis, Handley and Boult with the NPO. I will most surely go after a copy of the Berglund.
@alexhamilton9758
2 жыл бұрын
"I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant."
@klemmelchi9408
4 жыл бұрын
Another fabulous survey. Thank you, Dave.
@francispanny5068
3 жыл бұрын
I would love to get the complete cycle of Vaughan Williams with Boult. I notice there are two versions of the EMI cycle. I wonder which has better sound. The latest version has more works, espcecially two versions of the masque, JOB, and his opera, The Pilgrim's Progress. This set would supplement my Slatkin set which I have.
@DavesClassicalGuide
3 жыл бұрын
There is no difference.
@gaylelinney180
4 жыл бұрын
Dave I am so pleased you value Paavo Berglund, and not only in the VW 4th which I agree is among the very best (and yes, the Mitropoulos is pretty hair-raising). I have the Warner Icons box and in the 13 CDs there are no duds and plenty of excellence, including his Shostakovich... One of the very first orchestral concerts I ever attended was the Sydney Symphony conducted by Berglund. It was around 1972 and I was a teenager who knew little about the classical repertoire. To be honest, I attended the concert mainly for the soloist, a certain Alfred Brendel, who played the Beethoven 3. You might as well start with the best, right? Anyway the work after the interval was the VW 6th, and it just blew me away. I've been a VW tragic ever since.
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing your experience! I wish I could have been there.
@UlfilasNZ
4 жыл бұрын
This is the best survey I've seen of this work! Thanks David! (And I really like Davis on Teldec, quite an original conception)
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
Glad you liked it!
@edwinbaumgartner5045
4 жыл бұрын
A sentence of yours just caused me an incredible pleasure: I never heard of the conductor Constantin Silvestri. Now, I just listened to Britten's Purcell-Variations on KZitem, a work I know by heart - and Silvestri's is "my" performance. Oh dear, what a musician! I discovered a true conductor, and I will listen to more of his performances - thanks to you!
@DavesClassicalGuide
4 жыл бұрын
So glad you discovered him. He was one of the greats.
@ianpunter4486
10 ай бұрын
I sat behind the orchestra at the RFH in London and watched Silvestri start the Bournemouth SO in Enescu's Rumanian Rhapsody 2. Halfway through, he smiled and nodded, feigned a yawn, put his baton down, and the BSO played along like galvanised crazies , ....until the final bar, when he grabbed the baton and brought the proceedings to a close. Chemistry between conductor and orchestra!!?
@damiangruszczynski7451
4 жыл бұрын
We all love British Music Critics - That’s why we are here ;-)
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