Search - Vaughan Williams, Handley :: Sinfonia Antartica

'Sinfonia Antarctica' played for all-out excitement

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/12/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The main attraction here is Handley's headlong, exciting reading of the Sinfonia Antarctica. Boult's stereo version on EMI is bracing and propulsive, but Handley is even more dynamic. The downside is that there isn't much room for the melancholy, desolate side of the music, which after all commemorates the tragedy of Scott's doomed attempt to reach the South Pole. But the sound is wide-ranging and detailed without being bombastic at the climaxes. Although nneither chorus, wordless soprano (Alison Hargan), nor the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic quite match Boult's London Philharmonic forces, they are excellent all around, if a bit short on atmosphere in transmitting the other-worldly eeriness of the Antarctic landscape. This is more like edge-of-your-seat film music than a symphony, all in all.



The Classics for Pleasure CD that I have includes both the Serenade to Music, done too briskly for real lyrical effect, and a dull Partita for Duoble String Orchestra. At best they are agreeable fillers."