Search - Ralph Vaughan Williams, Andre Previn, London Symphony Orchestra :: Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5, etc.

As close to Nirvana as music can get

K. T. Ong | Singapore | 04/27/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vaughan Williams' 5th Symphony is not meant to be for casual listening. In this symphony Vaughan Williams gets really personal, and he drags the tears forcibly out of your eyes. As with the 4th and 6th symphonies, people have puzzled a great deal over just what the composer was trying to say in this work. On my part, I always like to imagine that he was setting to music the story of the life of the Buddha. This actually need not be that far-fetched an idea in view of the fact that Gustav 'The Planets' Holst, one of Vaughan Wiliams' closest friends, was a great enthusiast with respect to Hindu thought and literature; some of the enthusiasm might have rubbed off on Vaughan Williams, for all you know.If we grant the idea of a musical biography of the Buddha our indulgence, the first movement will have to be a depiction of the youth of Prince Siddhartha. One could really hear in the dark-sounding chromatic theme the Prince's sightings of the ills of old age, disease and death. The movement ends in a triumphantly affirmative clarion call that ebbs into silence -- perhaps the Prince's resolution to deliver all sentient beings from suffering. The second movement could be thought of as a meditation on the transitoriness and evanascence of all conditioned phenomena, how all things arise and pass away in endless flux like a shadow-play; again the dark-sounding (and somewhat coarse) chromatic theme sneaks in -- I fancy this is the human ego, sunk in delusion -- and it eventually blares up angrily and makes a big mess before dying away with the music flowing on as before.The third movement is perhaps emotionally the weightiest of all. Here is spiritual longing and suffering at its near-unendurable extreme. (Everytime I listen to this movement, I cry.) One thinks of the Prince's six-year-long spiritual quest. The fourth movement starts quietly but builds up to a really happy climax before being momentarily overcast with fear, the darkness being resolutely driven away as the music passes through a brief moment of quiet before mounting up to an absolutely colossal restatement of the opening theme of the symphony. Surely this is the Buddha's Supreme Enlightenment! The music calms down, and you are lifted into a realm of warmth and radiance far removed from this vale of tears...I really don't consider the 'Three Portraits of Elizabethan England' (also included in this album) to be Vaughan Williams at his best (nor his 'Sea Symphony'). The movement 'Poet' features a jaunty violin solo, but 'Explorer' and 'Queen' are really a bit too 'lumpy and stodgy', to use the composer's own words. The 'gallumphing oom-pah' is... well... not very good music..."

And I was only interested in the last piece!

Valentine | Easthampton, MA United States | 01/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow...will there ever be another genius like Ralph Vaughan Williams, savior of English tonality? And to think, I was only interested in the Tuba Concerto (which is the pinnacle of writing for the instrument!)!"

Great combination of Vaughan Williams

R. Lane | Tracy, CA USA | 03/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disk makes a splendid introduction to Vaughan Williams.
The symphony is more concise than many of his other sypmhonies, so those new to VW can develop their patience slowly. And the accompanying works are probably worth the price of the disk by themselves. I need not say much about the Tuba Concerto, as others have "trumpeted" its merits here already. But my favorite pieces here are the Elizabethan Portraits. Like the symphony, they are concise, short, and very exciting!.
The symphony is well done, like the rest of Previn's cycle. I prefer Vernon Handley's recording for the symphony, but the Previn is more than acceptable.
Few combinations as diverse and satisfying like this exist. Grab it!
The disk is also now available in a boxed set, Amazon ASIN # B00011MK74, for a phenomenal price."