IMO this is one of the finest symphonies ever written and should be part of the repertoire of any first class orchestra. Although it requires many performers that’s not unique to this work. Good to hear a performance by a non British orchestra/chorus who are excellent.
All VW's symphonies should be played more, especially four to six, the latter being my favourite and I think his finest. The Sea Symphony seems to be performed more because of the choir than in spite of it.
It is perhaps ironic that the major symphonic work of a composer, who struggled until his late thirties to free himself from prevalent Teutonic compositional influences, is so magnificently interpreted, in part, by a German orchester, choir, and baritone, albeit under an American conductor. The world of music has made big strides.
Yes the orchestra is wonderful but I'm a bit disappointed by the soloists, particularly Michael Nagy who seems to be overpowered by the music. However it's good that this important work is being heard more often now outside the U.K. and U.S. IMO it's RVW's finest symphony.
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I'm delighted to discover this wonderful recording of the Sea Symphony. There was a time when German orchestras played quite a bit of English music, for example, Frederick Delius. To Davies, the orchestra, choir, and soloists, a thank you!
Wunderschöne und majestätische Aufführung dieser großartigen Sinfonie mit gut harmonisierten und perfekt synchronisierten Tönen aller Instrumente sowie gut vereinigten Stimmen des ausgezeichneten Chors und herrlichen Stimmen beider genialen Solisten. Der erfahrene Maestro dirigiert das ausgezeichnete Orchester im gut phrasierten Tempo und mit möglichst effektiver Dynamik. Dieses Meisterwerk sollte auch im Festland viel häufiger aufgeführt und viel höher geschätzt werden!
A very faithful representation of this stroke of musical genius by a highly competent chorus and a very solid orchestra. Excellent soloists too. Ought to be a repertoire piece but strangely isn't, at least not in the Deutschland (or perhaps not so strangely...).
00:00:00 - A Song for All Seas, All Ships 00:20:31 - On the Beach at Night, Alone 00:32:10 - Scherzo: The Waves 00:40:55 - The Explorers 01:11:33 - Applaus
1. Song for all seas, all ships 1: To-day a rude brief recitative, Of ships sailing the seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal, Of unnamed heroes in the ships--of waves spreading and spreading far as the eye can reach, Of dashing spray, and the winds piping and blowing, And out of these a chant for the sailors of all nations, Fitful, like a surge. Of sea-captains young or old, and the mates, and of all intrepid sailors, Of the few, very choice, taciturn, whom fate can never surprise nor death dismay. Pick'd sparingly without noise by thee old ocean, chosen by thee, Thou sea that pickest and cullest the race in time, and unitest nations, Suckled by thee, old husky nurse, embodying thee, Indomitable, untamed as thee. [Ever the heroes on water or on land, by ones or twos appearing, Ever the stock preserv'd and never lost, though rare, enough for seed preserv'd.] 2: Flaunt out O sea your separate flags of nations! Flaunt out visible as ever the various ship-signals! But do you reserve especially for yourself and for the soul of man one flag above all the rest, A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate above death, Token of all brave captains and all intrepid sailors and mates, And all that went down doing their duty, Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains young or old, A pennant universal, subtly waving all time, o'er all brave sailors, All seas, all ships. 2. On the beach at night alone On the beach at night alone, As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song, As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future. A vast similitude interlocks all, [All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,] All distances of place however wide, All distances of time, [all inanimate forms,] All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, [or in different worlds, All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes, All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages, All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,] All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future, This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them. 3. Scherzo - The Waves After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds, After the white-gray sails taut to their spars and ropes, Below, a myriad myriad waves hastening, lifting up their necks, Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship, Waves of the ocean bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying, Waves, undulating waves, liquid, uneven, emulous waves, Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves, Where the great vessel sailing and tacking displaced the surface, Larger and smaller waves in the spread of the ocean yearnfully flowing, The wake of the sea-ship after she passes, flashing and frolicsome under the sun, A motley procession with many a fleck of foam and many fragments, Following the stately and rapid ship, in the wake following. 4. O vast Rondure, swimming in space O vast Rondure, swimming in space, Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty, Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness, Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars above, Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees, With inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention, Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee. Down from the gardens of Asia descending [radiating], Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them, Wandering, yearning, curious, with restless explorations, With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish, with never-happy hearts, With that sad incessant refrain, Wherefore unsatisfied soul? and Whither O mocking life? Ah who shall soothe these feverish children? Who Justify these restless explorations? Who speak the secret of impassive earth? [Who bind it to us? what is this separate Nature so unnatural? What is this earth to our affections? (unloving earth, without a throb to answer ours, Cold earth, the place of graves.)] Yet soul be sure the first intent remains, and shall be carried out, Perhaps even now the time has arrived. After the seas are all cross'd, [(as they seem already cross'd,)] After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work, After the noble inventors, [after the scientists, the chemist, the geologist, ethnologist,] Finally shall come the poet worthy that name, The true son of God shall come singing his songs. [Then, not your deeds only, O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified, All these hearts, as of fretted children, shall be sooth'd, All affection shall be fully responded to -- the secret shall be told; All these separations and gaps shall be taken up, and hook'd and link'd together; The whole Earth -- this cold, impassive, voiceless Earth, shall be completely justified; Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd and compacted by the the Son of God, the poet, (He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains, He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose;) Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more, The true Son of God shall absolutely fuse them.] 5. O we can wait no longer O we can wait no longer, We too take ship O soul, Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas, Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail, Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,) Caroling free, singing our song of God, Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration. With laugh and many a kiss, (Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation,) O soul thou pleasest me, I thee. Ah more than any priest O soul we too believe in God, But with the mystery of God we dare not dally. O soul thou pleasest me, I thee, Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night, Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing, Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite, Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over, Bathe me O God in thee, mounting to thee, I and my soul to range in range of thee. O Thou transcendent, Nameless, the fibre and the breath, Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them, [Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving, Thou moral, spiritual fountain--affection's source--thou reservoir, (O pensive soul of me--O thirst unsatisfied--waitest not there? Waitest not haply for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?) Thou pulse--thou motive of the stars, suns, systems, That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious, Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space! How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself, I could not launch, to those, superior universes?] Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God, At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death, But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou actual Me, And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs, Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death, And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space. Greater than stars or suns, Bounding O soul thou journeyest forth; [ - What love, than thine and ours could wider amplify? What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul? What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength? What cheerful willingness, for others' sake, to give up all? For others' sake to suffer all? Reckoning ahead, O soul, when thou, the time achiev'd, (The seas all cross'd, weather'd the capes, the voyage done,) Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain'd, As, fill'd with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found, The Younger melts in fondness in his arms.] 6. Passage to more than India! [Passage to more than India! O secret of the earth and sky! Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers! Of you, O woods and fields! Of you, strong mountains of my land! Of you, O prairies! Of you, gray rocks! O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows! O day and night, passage to you! O sun and moon, and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter! Passage to you! Passage - immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!] Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor! Cut the hawsers - haul out - shake out every sail! [Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough? Have we not grovell'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes? Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?] Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only! Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me; For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all. O my brave soul! O farther, farther sail! O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God? O farther, farther, farther sail!
Quizás resulte aparatosa en sus dimensiones y tono, pero a mí su ambición me sobrecoge. Y los "further" finales, ¿acaso no recuerdan a los "Ewig" de la Canción de la Tierra mahleriana?
Sonntag, 4. März 2018 19 Uhr Liederhalle - Beethovensaal; Stuttgart Laura Aikin, Sopran Michael Nagy, Bariton Gaechinger Cantorey SWR Symphonieorchester Dirigent: Dennis Russell Davies
In a related much later work by RVW he uses the same basis of the first movement first subject ("And on it's heaving breast") as the basis of the theme of these variations ua-cam.com/video/zmAQiTGeuHI/v-deo.html --the theme also directly related to that of the flugel horn in the second movement of the Ninth Symphony - thus the Variations constitute a bridge returning us cyclically from the NINTH back to the SEA SYMPHONY. Enjoy - especially the utterly remarkable Variation IX Adagio.
Ponderous. A lack of drive. This thing really needs to be moved and it doesn't a lot of the time. The soloists don't seem to be engaged with the music. The Sea Symphony is a beast of a piece; it needs to be respected, otherwise it's a waste of time.
What a curiously misplaced comment. Perhaps a response to some other piece of music, or by some wayward AI? The engagement and movement are wonderful throughout.
A great performance by the choir, the renowned conductor, and the orchestra. It is a beautiful work. The words (by Walt Whitman) are amazing.
IMO this is one of the finest symphonies ever written and should be part of the repertoire of any first class orchestra. Although it requires many performers that’s not unique to this work. Good to hear a performance by a non British orchestra/chorus who are excellent.
All VW's symphonies should be played more, especially four to six, the latter being my favourite and I think his finest. The Sea Symphony seems to be performed more because of the choir than in spite of it.
Vielen Dank aus England für diesen wundervollen Auftritt - einer der besten, die ich je gehört habe!
Wie schön, danke! Viele Grüße aus Deutschland! ☺
It is perhaps ironic that the major symphonic work of a composer, who struggled until his late thirties to free himself from prevalent Teutonic compositional influences, is so magnificently interpreted, in part, by a German orchester, choir, and baritone, albeit under an American conductor.
The world of music has made big strides.
Yes the orchestra is wonderful but I'm a bit disappointed by the soloists, particularly Michael Nagy who seems to be overpowered by the music. However it's good that this important work is being heard more often now outside the U.K. and U.S. IMO it's RVW's finest symphony.
Yeah there are some weird choices in tempo here too.
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I'm delighted to discover this wonderful recording of the Sea Symphony. There was a time when German orchestras played quite a bit of English music, for example, Frederick Delius. To Davies, the orchestra, choir, and soloists, a thank you!
Overwhelmed!
Wunderschöne und majestätische Aufführung dieser großartigen Sinfonie mit gut harmonisierten und perfekt synchronisierten Tönen aller Instrumente sowie gut vereinigten Stimmen des ausgezeichneten Chors und herrlichen Stimmen beider genialen Solisten. Der erfahrene Maestro dirigiert das ausgezeichnete Orchester im gut phrasierten Tempo und mit möglichst effektiver Dynamik. Dieses Meisterwerk sollte auch im Festland viel häufiger aufgeführt und viel höher geschätzt werden!
RVW gehört regelmäßig auf den Spielplan.
Nur leider findet man ihn dort in Deutschland fast nie.
Leider stimmt.
A very faithful representation of this stroke of musical genius by a highly competent chorus and a very solid orchestra. Excellent soloists too. Ought to be a repertoire piece but strangely isn't, at least not in the Deutschland (or perhaps not so strangely...).
We can only agree :)
00:00:00 - A Song for All Seas, All Ships
00:20:31 - On the Beach at Night, Alone
00:32:10 - Scherzo: The Waves
00:40:55 - The Explorers
01:11:33 - Applaus
Beautiful.
Quite a long performance but with its own logic to it.
1. Song for all seas, all ships
1: To-day a rude brief recitative,
Of ships sailing the seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal,
Of unnamed heroes in the ships--of waves spreading and spreading far as the eye can reach,
Of dashing spray, and the winds piping and blowing,
And out of these a chant for the sailors of all nations,
Fitful, like a surge.
Of sea-captains young or old, and the mates, and of all intrepid sailors,
Of the few, very choice, taciturn, whom fate can never surprise nor death dismay.
Pick'd sparingly without noise by thee old ocean, chosen by thee,
Thou sea that pickest and cullest the race in time, and unitest nations,
Suckled by thee, old husky nurse, embodying thee,
Indomitable, untamed as thee.
[Ever the heroes on water or on land, by ones or twos appearing,
Ever the stock preserv'd and never lost, though rare, enough for seed preserv'd.]
2: Flaunt out O sea your separate flags of nations!
Flaunt out visible as ever the various ship-signals!
But do you reserve especially for yourself and for the soul of man one flag above all the rest,
A spiritual woven signal for all nations, emblem of man elate above death,
Token of all brave captains and all intrepid sailors and mates,
And all that went down doing their duty,
Reminiscent of them, twined from all intrepid captains young or old,
A pennant universal, subtly waving all time, o'er all brave sailors,
All seas, all ships.
2. On the beach at night alone
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef
of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
[All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,]
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, [all inanimate forms,]
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, [or in
different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,]
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.
3. Scherzo - The Waves
After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds,
After the white-gray sails taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad myriad waves hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship,
Waves of the ocean bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,
Waves, undulating waves, liquid, uneven, emulous waves,
Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves,
Where the great vessel sailing and tacking displaced the surface,
Larger and smaller waves in the spread of the ocean yearnfully flowing,
The wake of the sea-ship after she passes, flashing and frolicsome under the sun,
A motley procession with many a fleck of foam and many fragments,
Following the stately and rapid ship, in the wake following.
4. O vast Rondure, swimming in space
O vast Rondure, swimming in space,
Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty,
Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness,
Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon and countless stars above,
Below, the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees,
With inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention,
Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee.
Down from the gardens of Asia descending [radiating],
Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious, with restless explorations,
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish, with never-happy hearts,
With that sad incessant refrain, Wherefore unsatisfied soul? and
Whither O mocking life?
Ah who shall soothe these feverish children?
Who Justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive earth?
[Who bind it to us? what is this separate Nature so unnatural?
What is this earth to our affections? (unloving earth, without a
throb to answer ours,
Cold earth, the place of graves.)]
Yet soul be sure the first intent remains, and shall be carried out,
Perhaps even now the time has arrived.
After the seas are all cross'd, [(as they seem already cross'd,)]
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work,
After the noble inventors, [after the scientists, the chemist, the
geologist, ethnologist,]
Finally shall come the poet worthy that name,
The true son of God shall come singing his songs.
[Then, not your deeds only, O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified,
All these hearts, as of fretted children, shall be sooth'd,
All affection shall be fully responded to -- the secret shall be told;
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up, and hook'd and link'd together;
The whole Earth -- this cold, impassive, voiceless Earth, shall be completely justified;
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd and compacted by the the Son of God, the poet,
(He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains,
He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose;)
Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more,
The true Son of God shall absolutely fuse them.]
5. O we can wait no longer
O we can wait no longer,
We too take ship O soul,
Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas,
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail,
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O soul,)
Caroling free, singing our song of God,
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.
With laugh and many a kiss,
(Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation,)
O soul thou pleasest me, I thee.
Ah more than any priest O soul we too believe in God,
But with the mystery of God we dare not dally.
O soul thou pleasest me, I thee,
Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,
Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing,
Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,
Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, lave me all over,
Bathe me O God in thee, mounting to thee,
I and my soul to range in range of thee.
O Thou transcendent,
Nameless, the fibre and the breath,
Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them,
[Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving,
Thou moral, spiritual fountain--affection's source--thou reservoir,
(O pensive soul of me--O thirst unsatisfied--waitest not there?
Waitest not haply for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?)
Thou pulse--thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space!
How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out
of myself,
I could not launch, to those, superior universes?]
Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death,
But that I, turning, call to thee O soul, thou actual Me,
And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death,
And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space.
Greater than stars or suns,
Bounding O soul thou journeyest forth;
[ - What love, than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul?
What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength?
What cheerful willingness, for others' sake, to give up all?
For others' sake to suffer all?
Reckoning ahead, O soul, when thou, the time achiev'd,
(The seas all cross'd, weather'd the capes, the voyage done,)
Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain'd,
As, fill'd with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found,
The Younger melts in fondness in his arms.]
6. Passage to more than India!
[Passage to more than India!
O secret of the earth and sky!
Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers!
Of you, O woods and fields! Of you, strong mountains of my land!
Of you, O prairies! Of you, gray rocks!
O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows!
O day and night, passage to you!
O sun and moon, and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
Passage to you!
Passage - immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!]
Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers - haul out - shake out every sail!
[Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovell'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?]
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!
Quizás resulte aparatosa en sus dimensiones y tono, pero a mí su ambición me sobrecoge. Y los "further" finales, ¿acaso no recuerdan a los "Ewig" de la Canción de la Tierra mahleriana?
Sonntag, 4. März 2018 19 Uhr
Liederhalle - Beethovensaal; Stuttgart
Laura Aikin, Sopran
Michael Nagy, Bariton
Gaechinger Cantorey
SWR Symphonieorchester
Dirigent: Dennis Russell Davies
Der Saal war ja nich gerade voll
Wie Schade.
Oh dear 10:04 much too fast
Nah. It's fine.
Yeah its a little quick
In a related much later work by RVW he uses the same basis of the first movement first subject ("And on it's heaving breast") as the basis of the theme of these variations ua-cam.com/video/zmAQiTGeuHI/v-deo.html --the theme also directly related to that of the flugel horn in the second movement of the Ninth Symphony - thus the Variations constitute a bridge returning us cyclically from the NINTH back to the SEA SYMPHONY. Enjoy - especially the utterly remarkable Variation IX Adagio.
omg. so schwer zu singen….
Ponderous. A lack of drive. This thing really needs to be moved and it doesn't a lot of the time. The soloists don't seem to be engaged with the music. The Sea Symphony is a beast of a piece; it needs to be respected, otherwise it's a waste of time.
What a curiously misplaced comment. Perhaps a response to some other piece of music, or by some wayward AI? The engagement and movement are wonderful throughout.
@@andrewcarpenter817 Ha Ha, nothing like a good piece of snobbery.