Maurice Abravanel: Vaughan Williams CD Track Listing

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Maurice Abravanel Vaughan Williams (1996)
The great composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) virtually defined the English symphonic music of this century. Born and educated in England, he was the son of a clergyman. He received degrees from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1895 and 1901, and also took intruction at the Royal College of Music. After 1901, he served as a chruch organist for three years, but composition was always his driving interest. Although he studied briefly in Berlin wiht Max Bruch before the turn of the century, and in Paris with Ravel in 1909, his music reflects a profound English sensibility. Most of his earliest works were forgettable, however; he compared himself to his peers at R.C.M., Gustav Holst and Coleridge-Taylor, and he withdrew or withheld his early works from publication. It was only after he became interested in English folk song that he developed his own unique compositional voice. he joined the Folk-Song Society in 1904.\n The Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis of 1910 was one of Vaughan Williams' first great compositions. A marvel of subtle instrumentation, employing only strings, it is scored for two full string choirs, with interplay between the two groups as well as between the solo strings and main body in each choir. For his princiapl theme, Vaughan Williams used a popular-style hymn by Thomas Tallis, c. 1505-85. He opens the work with phrases from Tallis' melody, woven into a free-flowing polyphony, so that when the complete theme appears, it seems to have been born out of the preceding music. It is changed into a continuously flowing, self-expanding melodic line, supported by a apolyphonic web spun of its fragmentary phrases. A "development section" follows, in which the theme again breaks into parts and a touch of drama enters, with antiphonal statements and answers while solo strings meditatively emerge from the full string body. The climax is a declamation by the entire strings. In the compressed recapitulation and coda, the opening music returns in varied form with touching, free cadenza-like figures from the solo strings.\n If the Tallis Fantasia shows how creatively Vaughan Williams drew upon the Elizabethan masters, the following work reflects his attachment to the English folk songs that were kept alive for centuries in the countryside but remained unknown to the "official" schools of English music.\n Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus' for harp and string orchestra was first performed under Sir Adrian Boult in 1939 at the New York World's Fair, for which it was written. The song, known in England at least as far back as the end of the 16th century, exists in many variants, in both music and words. The most familiar text tells the story (from Luke: 16) of the rich man who drives the starving beggar, Lazarus, away from his door. After he dies, he burns in Hell, begging for a taste of water from Lazarus, who is now "in Abraham's bosom."\n Vaughan Williams writes in the score: "These variants are not exact replicas of traditional tunes, but rather reminischences of various versions in my own collection and those of others." The English writer Hubert Foss commented: "We are thereby forewarned that this is a music work, music that contains the dreams and memories of a folk song collector ...'Variants,' not variations, is the proper designation."\n The violas and cellos are divded. The opening statement of the melody, Adagio, 4 / 4, is stated by the full forces. Variant I, in 3 / 4 time, gives a prominent role to the harp. Variant II, Allegro moderato, 3 / 4, makes rich use of the divided string choirs. Variant III, 3 / 4, starts as a duet for solo violin and harp, with the other strings then entering, rising to fortissimo, and dying away. Variant IV, L'istesso tempo, 2 / 4, starts by giving the violas a prominent singing role. Variant V, Adagio, 4 / 4, achieves a big climax of sound, fortissimo, with the violins divided four ways, the violas three ways, the cellos two ways, and calling also for double-stopping. Then the solo cello is heard in meditation, the harp comments, and the full string body brings the work to a quiet end. As with the Tallis Fantasy, the composer here recreates something of the spirit of the old improvisational music for a chest of viols.\n Flos Campi is a major achievement of the 1920s, ranking with the composer's best symphonies. Typical of its unorthodoxies is that it does not fit specifically into any category, whether concerto, choral, cantata, or tone poem. Flos Campi (Flower of the Fields), inspired by the Song of Solomon, is among Vaughan William's most sensuously beautiful works.\n It was composed in 1925 and dedicated to the famous English violist Lionel Tertis. The free rhapsodic flow of the solo viola throughout, defying bar lines, evokes the voice of the ancient poet, chanting, meditative, expostulatory, against a wordless choir of 26 voices and the shifting, delicate colors of a small orchestra (flute, piccolo, clarinet, horn, trumpet, celesta, triangle, cymbals, tabor, bass drum and 22 strings). Behind the seemingly improvisational flow of the music lies a most scrupulous, controlled thematic organization. And behind the melodic loveliness lies the remarkable creation of a special "language" for the purpose, consisting of modal polyphonic lines and harmoniess, often approaching, as in the very opening passages, what could be analyzed as polytonality.\n Although the music is continuous in flow, and wordless, there are six sections and the composer has appended a quotation from the Song of Solomon over each.\n Lento - As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters . . Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.\n Andante con moto (with viola cadenza as transition to the next section) - For lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of thr turtle is heard in our land.\n Lento-Allegro moderato - I sought whom my soul loveth, but I found him not . . . . "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love" . . . Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among woment? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.\n Moderato all amrcia - Behold his bed which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it . . . They all hold swords, being expert in war.\n Andante quasi Lento--largamente - Set me as a seal upon thine heart.\n Greensleeves was the most popular of Elizabethan songs, set to various texts ranging from the bawdy to a Christmas carol. Its rediscovery in the 20th century gave it a new, enormous public. When it was still little known, Vaughan Williams adapted it for his opera Sir John in Love (1924-9), based on Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor." The Fantasia on Greensleeves is essentially the composer's free elaboration of this song as it appears in the opera.\n --S.W. Bennett
This classical cd contains 4 tracks and runs 52min 58sec.
Freedb: 380c6804

Category

: Music

Tags

: music songs tracks classical

1. Maurice Abravanel - Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis (16:13)
2. Maurice Abravanel - Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus' (12:53)
3. Maurice Abravanel - Flos Campi (19:11)
4. Maurice Abravanel - Fantasia on 'Greensleeves' (04:37)