Now, with regard to 'those Italians' - to paraphrase Lou Reed - remember that one swallow doth not a summer make. So Verdi wrote a Requiem. Yep, he did. It's a masterpiece. He also wrote about 2000 operas, as did Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Ponicheli etc. Now, if I were to be banished to a desert Island and the only music available was Italian, I'd probably hire a boat and walk the plank. If, however, the only wines on offer were Italian, then count me in.
Cheers, Lee.
I'm not sure if I would label the Verdi Requiem 'charming and fresh', Dieter .....
I think you are drifting a little way off the point that Ralph was making - that the music of RVW is more than "pastoral" or "cow pat music". All you need to do is listen to his Sixth Symphony to understand how absurd such labels are.
LD
I have an extensive VW CD Collection. I like much of his music, symphonies 2,3,5,6 particularly, Job, Dona Nobis Pacem, some of the other Choral pieces, and his chamber music. On your recommendation, I've played the 104th Psalm Tune and Epithaminion from the wonderful EMI 30CD box and I simply switched off. It must be a cultural thing, and quite possibly, explains my antipathy to Gerontius as well. It's music that simply rubs me up the wrong way. And, I can't help it, but the older I get and the more attuned I become to real history, I.E. not what we're taught in classrooms or by nuns and priests and rabbis, the less attuned I become to music which turns inward towards an exclusive and unique cultural or religious identity. In that way, Britten makes much more sense to me than 'Cow Pat' VW, and Elgar. Somehow, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Bruckner, transcend any specific brand of 'Faith, Janacek, Martinu, Bartok, and Shostakovich were able to generate a sense of universality into their scores. Mahler, especially when conducted by musicians who try to rescue him from 5th Avenue and the beach of Tel Aviv, sounds both Central European and Universal. Even Wagner's music has resonance beyond those who get their chronology wrong by associating him with Hitler and the crimes of the Nazis.
Oh, and as an aside, that's probably why Italian Music is so charming and fresh: it's both pagan and most often joyous and music that enjoys the moment.
I greatly enjoyed all those Anniversary reviews Ralph, (especially as my notes for the Alto release of symphonies 4 and 5 received a positive mention!) For me, it's the 6th Symphony and the Pilgrim's Progress (which I was privileged to see live twice) that are VW's greatest works. I'm also very fond of lesser-known works like Epithalamion (ideal late-night listening) and the Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm Tune.
I hope readers were pleased with the collection of reviews celebrating the birth sesquicentennial. I wonder if anyone shares my irritation at the constant references to Vaughan Williams as a primarily "pastoral" composer. For all that he was a collector of folk songs, loved the English countryside and expressed that love in his music, so much of it is far more challenging than the justly famous "lollipops" like Dives and Lazarus , the Lark Ascending and Greensleeves - all of which which I love, but they are not the bulk or core of his work. The "Pastoral" symphony and the Romanza of the Fifth (which does not actually have much to do with the English countryside) notwithstanding, you have only to listen to his symphonies as a whole - especially nos. 4, 6 and 9 - to hear why the composer was irked by that label.
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