I agree with Nick's point that people outside the UK might have little opportunity to hear the music of VW, at least in concert. As a student I had a Saturday job in the Record Dept of W H Smiths on the Earl's Court Road in London. When left to myself I would often put on the music of VW. I remember once, a Spanish gentleman came up to the counter to ask me what the beautiful music was, and he told me that he'd never heard of Vaughan Williams. Many years ago, I was on a summer holiday in Kitzbuhel in the Austrian Alps and was delighted to find a CD shop (when such places existed). I noticed a large section devoted to Britten and nothing at all by Vaughan Williams. I don't like the Dream of Gerontius either and whilst recognising the greatness of Elgar's two symphonies (and the reconstructed No.3) I rarely listen to his music. I would love to hear Allan Pettersson's 6th, 7th or 8th symphonies played at the Proms or, even better, the Violin concerto No.2, which I consider one of the greatest ever written.
Rob, I think our friend and colleague JQ might have adapted - and improved! - that lovely phrase from Peter Warlock's oft-quoted observation that RVW's music is "all just a little too much like a cow looking over a gate" - although, in fact, he was an admirer. I refer to that comment in my recent review of Pristine's remastering of the London and Pastoral here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Jul/VW-sys23-PASC662.htm
It's jolly nonsense, of course - and as you say, certainly not John's view - although it might well apply to certain lesser English composers....
When, in the 1990s, I presented a classical music programme for the BBC, one of my regular guests was John Quinn - now MusicWeb’s Editor-in-chief. John was (and, I imagine, still is) an RVW fan and I well remember how he used to use a wonderful phrase to describe how detractors saw the composer’s scores - “cow pat music”.
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