Search - Vaughan Williams, BBC Philharmonic, Gumba :: Film Music of Vaughan Williams 1

The whole of Vaughan Williams' Scott film score at last

Rodney Gavin Bullock | Winchester, Hampshire Angleterre | 12/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Since 2001, there have been a number of recordings of `unknown' Vaughan Williams - the original version of A London Symphony the Norfolk Rhapsody No 2 (both from Chandos) and a 2 CD set of his early chamber works (Hyperion). On this CD we have the complete film music to Scott of the Antarctic, with ten `new' movements in addition to the eight usually presented, giving about 25 minutes of extra music. And if that was not enough, Chandos have recorded the music to `The People's Land', a film about the National Trust! This is a British organisation dedicated to preserving historic buildings and areas of outstanding beauty.! But documentary film music is not always routine stuff - Britten's `Night Mail' is a wonderful example of what can be done.Vaughan Williams, always a man willing to help others, looked for ways to assist the war effort in any way he could (he was in his late 60s), and gave up the field adjoining his garden to allotments for the local people (keeping a plot for himself) and assisting with refugees. But in terms of his own special talents, film music seemed something he might do, and as one might expect from this very adaptable man, he did it very well, continuing after the war with Scott of the Antarctic.The film makers used less than half of RVW's music for the film, `Scott of the Antarctic' and here it is restored to a score lasting over forty minutes. Commissioned in 1947, it is wonderful stuff, brilliantly descriptive of the icy landscape, penguins and horses in his use of new sonorities. It is intriguing to see how the composer took the music of Ice Floes and the various Glacier movements and built them into the massive Landscape movement of the Sinfonia Antartica of a few years later. Music that is wonderfully evocative in the film is build symphonically into one of the most shattering movements in all music. All in all, this is a wonderful film score - surely one of the best ever written. There is also quite a lot of music which is not found in the symphony at all.`Coastal Command' (1942) was written for a documentary about the flying-boats which patrolled off Iceland and the North Sea looking for German shipping. `The Hebrides' is a short, beautiful and evocative piece and Dawn Patrol (Quiet Determination) begins lyrically, becoming more agitated.The People's Land is a lovely piece built from the composer's beloved folksongs together with material to illustrate particular visual aspects of the film.The Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, under Rumon Gamba, give a fine performance and the Chandos recording is outstanding. Michael Kennedy, close friend of RVW and the leading authority on his work provides the notes."

Score Another Bullseye for Rumon Gamba

Good Stuff | 02/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a fabulous recording!The world premiere recording of Vaughan Williams' famed score for "Scott of the Antarctic", at some 41 minutes, would be a full plate, in and of itself. However, it only constitutes a bit over half of this remarkable CD.We are not only given the privelege of hearing, for the first time, Vaughan Williams complete score for "Scott", we are treated to his music for "Costal Command" and a score called "The People's Land", of which I was totally ignorant.All are brilliantly realized, performed and recorded.Those wonderful people at Chandos have performed a great service to the music world in general and to the legacy of this great composer in particular. And the wonderful conductor, Rumon Gamba, simply MUST be singled out for, once again, providing us with music making of the most superior kind. This conductor, ladies and gentlemen, is a star on the rise.One final note: we are intrigued by the title of this CD, "The Film Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. 'VOLUME 1'".Since this CD was released well over 1 1/2 years ago, I hope another, featuring the music of Vaughan Williams as conducted by Rumon Gamba, is on the horizon."