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The Curious Case of the Catatonic Lark
Posted by Barry Cronin on March 1, 2026, 12:07 pm
Reading Jonathan Woolf's 3rd October 2024 review of the Grinke/Vaughan Williams/Albion disc, I was pleased to see that I'm not the only one who has noticed The Lark Ascending getting slower and slower in recent times. Just yesterday, Radio 3 broadcast a performance (name withheld to protect the innocent) which was - at least at the beginning - painfully slow; I didn't make it to the end. And the last couple of times at the Proms - which, to add insult to injury, have been televised - suffered the same problem. If the bird was hovering and singing at this speed, the poor thing would drop from the sky like a stone. One could argue the piece is a warhorse now, so playing it more slowly than it needs is not helping its cause. What is the thinking behind this, other than 'if I go slowly, it shows how serious and sensitive I am'? This is patently nonsense, and shows no understanding either of nature or VW's music. Apologies for the rant, but these people need to be stopped at all costs! On a minor point, going back to the review, there is a mention of 'fine wind playing' in the slow movement of the Violin Concerto - I presume a typo, as the work is only for soloist and strings, or has their been some inauthentic doubling-up?
No inauthentic doubling-up, Barry, just a reviewer's old age. Thanks for pointing out the slip so deftly...
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Reading Jonathan Woolf's 3rd October 2024 review of the Grinke/Vaughan Williams/Albion disc, I was pleased to see that I'm not the only one who has noticed The Lark Ascending getting slower and slower in recent times. Just yesterday, Radio 3 broadcast a performance (name withheld to protect the innocent) which was - at least at the beginning - painfully slow; I didn't make it to the end. And the last couple of times at the Proms - which, to add insult to injury, have been televised - suffered the same problem. If the bird was hovering and singing at this speed, the poor thing would drop from the sky like a stone. One could argue the piece is a warhorse now, so playing it more slowly than it needs is not helping its cause. What is the thinking behind this, other than 'if I go slowly, it shows how serious and sensitive I am'? This is patently nonsense, and shows no understanding either of nature or VW's music. Apologies for the rant, but these people need to be stopped at all costs! On a minor point, going back to the review, there is a mention of 'fine wind playing' in the slow movement of the Violin Concerto - I presume a typo, as the work is only for soloist and strings, or has their been some inauthentic doubling-up?
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