Search - Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Boughton, English String Orchestra :: Vaughan Williams: Orchestral Favourites, Vol. 3

Boughton nails Vaughan Williams

David Robinson | Oakland, CA United States | 01/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vaughan Williams was responsible for a great renaissance in English music through the development of a distinctive style based on the melodies of folk songs. You can hear excellent examples here on the Greensleeves Fantasia and the Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus. At first these appear to be almost student exercises: Take a theme and play with it. But the resulting pieces have great beauty and William Boughton's conducting shows more than a deep understanding of the music. The phrasing is sensitive without being sentimental. You'll play each track again and again.The Tallis Fantasy is based on a very simple hymn tune, but is a remarkable piece. Scored for a double orchestra, the strings play lightly with a tone that evokes a softly playing organ at the distance in a large cathedral. Although many critics instantly recognized the timeless quality of this piece on its first performance at the Three Choirs Festival in 1910, one local paper carried a review that said, in essence, nice enough, but we'll never hear this performed again. Wrong!The oboe concerto is a well-crafted spirited piece that does well in performance. Maurice Borgue plays enthusiastically. Unfortunately, the solo instrument is so closely miked, you can hear the pads click on the ebony!This is an essential CD to own for any serious lover of English classical music."