Review: Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins)
Many moments of grandeur, but should you set sail in it?
Many moments of grandeur, but should you set sail in it?
It celebrates its 40th year with six inventive programs next year.
The British filmmaker's composer portraits for the BBC are Limelight's Recording of the Month in August.
Scenes from a life x3: A trio of British composers are reborn in masterly, moving documentaries.
Heavenly Twins: Vaughan Williams’ Fifth and Sixth prove two sides of a classy coin.
The conductor talks about his recording of Vaughan Williams' Fifth and Sixth Symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Limelight's Recording of the Month in July.
Brabbins croons a wonderful Foggy Day in London town.
Sir Andrew Davis plays it cool in Antarctica.
Five in harmony as FS Kelly joins the Brits.
An outstanding Vaughan Williams from Emma McGrath and the TSO to bid farewell to the 2017 season.
Chris van Tuinen and Gladys Chua will escape from a prison into the open air in four uniquely site specific concerts. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
If you’ve ever wondered why you’d never heard of Vaughan Williams’ keyboard music, you might find the answer in these well-performed examples by the excellent British pianist Mark Bebbington. It’s important to hear the full range of any great composer’s music, and Discoveries, recently reviewed in Limelight, brought us some of his unheard orchestral works. It’s wonderful music, hidden away for decades. But that is orchestral music, of which the composer was a master.The piano, being a percussion instrument simply cannot release the Vaughan Williams magic. It works a treat for Beethoven, but is relatively alien to the misty loveliness of Vaughan Williams. Two works for solo piano, A Little Piano Book and Suite of Six Short Pieces, are pleasant, but not much more. Of sterner stuff is the Introduction and Fugue for two pianos, a first recording; at 17 minutes it has some substance. The Lake in the Mountains is claimed to be a masterpiece, and is possibly the best piece on the disc. However, it descends into musical head-banging with a great deal of thumping, not a style I associate with the composer. The arrangements of his more famous pieces, such as the Tallis Fantasia… Continue reading Get…
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