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Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2012
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Symphony No. 6 in E minor [1944-47, rev. 1950]
I. Allegro 02:14
II. Moderato 09:21
III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace 18:37
IV. Epilogue: Moderato 24:24
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Manze, conductor
With the lyrical Symphony No. 5 (1938-1943), many figured that Vaughan Williams-who was, after all, in his early seventies by this time-was in essence saying farewell to the symphonic idiom. So the surprise and interest was that much greater when the Symphony No. 6 was announced in 1947. Beginning with some sketches from the score for the film The Flemish Farm (1943), Vaughan Williams worked on the Symphony No. 6 over the years 1944-1947. It was given its first performance at the Royal Albert Hall on April 21, 1948, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The work was received with tremendous acclaim, and in its first year of existence it was performed nearly 100 times.
The unusual tone of the work, particularly the utter desolation of the final movement, has led many commentators to seek out some kind of extra-musical program. Vaughan Williams, as usual, strongly rejected any such interpretations. The first movement, simply marked Allegro, opens tempestuously. After a brief respite, a swaggering, syncopated march-like section breaks out. Its jazzy gait leads into a stately melody, which is presented first by the strings and then, boldly, by the brass, with heavy percussive accents. After further episodes, the stately tune ultimately returns in a more expressive guise, with flowing strings and strumming harp, gradually building into a final return of the stormy opening music. A single held note from the cellos and basses directly leads into the Moderato second movement. It is eerie and menacing, a chilly landscape that builds to a big, monolithic climax, as a martial three-note figure is hammered out over 90 times by trumpet, brass, and percussion, dominating everything around it. As the crescendo spends itself, a lonely English horn solo over wisps of strings leads into the third movement, a Scherzo marked Allegro vivace. This third movement has some of the sardonic quality of Shostakovich as it generates a considerable amount of undirected energy. A surprising and rather sleazy saxophone solo takes over, with the snare drum tapping away behind it. The saxophone melody is transformed into a noisy, stentorian climax that dies away to some woodwind chatter.
That leads into the ghostly Epilogue: Moderato, which drifts about purposelessly for some 10 minutes at a consistently quiet dynamic. Small fragments of melody try to coalesce, but consistently fail. This movement, and to some extent the second, evokes the chilly, featureless landscapes of Vaughan Williams' score for the film Scott of the Antarctic (1948), and the attendant Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7, 1949-1952). The music continues to drift among muted strings and brass, the former bringing the work to an uneasy end as they rock back and forth, almost inaudibly, between E flat major and E minor chords. This movement's evanescent texture and emotional blankness, not to mention its sheer quietness, are very disturbing, and led some commentators to think that Vaughan Williams was imagining some kind of postwar or post-atomic devastation. The composer rejected such literalism; the only clue he provided was a reference to Prospero's famous speech from The Tempest: "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep." Perhaps coincidentally, in 1951 Vaughan Williams set these very words to music for chorus as one of his Three Shakespearean Songs.
© All Music Guide
This wonderful performance is the cat’s pajamas
Comfort of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ music is off the charts
The two minutes from 7:30 onwards are the most sublime I have ever heard.
Sublime indeed. Beautiful and heart-wrenching all in one. Famously used for the theme music to the 1970s ITV drama, A Family At War.
The final movement is good to drink a beer to late at night while reading M.R. James stories...
Just discovered the theme to "Family at War" came from this....loved that show when I was young, especially this music!
Quite right. The Two Ronnies also used the piece immediately afterwards for the theme of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town!!
I also first discovered this Symphony as the theme music to the BBC production "Family at War" shown on ABC TV here in the early 1970's. I agree with the commentary that he, like many of his compatriots was deeply shocked by the horrors of World War II A very moving work, particularly the last movement./
How lovely, this is a Vaughan Williams favourite of mine.
I was there! What a fond memory.
Jedno z nejpozoruhodnejsich valecnych del klasicke hudby.
The first composition I have ever heard by him, and still a favorite. Magnificent.
Quite unlike a lot of his more famous work. He was an extremely versatile composer, which is a quality that is sometimes lost in the popular perception, being based on a handful of his works that are all quite similar in type.
Overture to Wasp was my first from him
I was swallowed by a whirlpool of emotion with so much terrifying performance . 🍎
One of my favourites, the 1st movement always reminds me of the sea and its changing moods.
Now that I think of it YES it does.
The second movement blows my mind.
Dare I say that the passage for strings beginning at 7:35 is the most beautiful melody ever written?
Awesome conductor; the best performance I've heard of it!
Thanks for the 2nd mov. Finally something happen.Waiting for its Scherzo!
VW's greatest symphony, which combines the violence of No.4 with the spiritual qualities of No.5 to create a most disturbing synthesis. I've loved this symphony since coming across Boult's LPO Decca Eclipse LP as a teenager 50 years ago.
Violence in VaughanWilliams is like saying peace,naivete and innocence in Boulezs work. I can't find it.
@@MrInterestingthings 4th and 6th Symphony as well as parts of Job are quite violent in places. Try the opening of No.4 if you don't know it.
Thank you so much for uploading this. Now we can hear it for much longer than the nasty 7-day i-player of the BBC ! What a cracking performance too.
Would have been a blockbuster movie of it's time.
Just love the piece leading up to the saxophone solo especially the lovely harmony much after. It paints a mesmerizing desolate wasteland.
The cellos at the end of the 1st movement 😮
This music gazes into the abyss. Terrifying.
ENGLISH Music at its very best.
This symphony was the intro theme of an English classical series family at war . But it was nicer in the intro ( who is familiar with indian music would find this section so close from their way in musical phrase at 7:38 ) the best oart of this symphony is from 7:31 to 9:16 .
Vaughan Williams said repeatedly the Sixth was not inspired by Nazis or Hiroshima or WWII - and these commentators densely persist in claiming the symphony was inspired by WWII. Not all music is literary or descriptive - and constant attempts by dim commentators to make it so are tedious and annoying. Like all the stupid nicknames that blemish Haydn's quartets and symphonies. As Vaughan Williams commented, "did it ever occur to people that a man might want to simply write a piece of music?"
source?
@@DennyDormant On the subject of the Sixth Symphony he once said to Roy Douglas "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music" (Kennedy, 1964, p302). Indeed, on the Sixth Symphony he wrote "I DO NOT BELIEVE IN meanings and mottoes'" (Kennedy, 1964, p302). This would seem to clearly indicate that he was writing what is called, "pure music" and was not telling a story or writing musical explicit commentary, as much as people love that sort of thing. Additionally, the fourth symphony was written largely before Hitler even came to power in 1933. As for the sixth, after continual prodding, VW made a rather testy comment that if you had to make something extra-musical out of the finale, think of Shakespeare's "Tempest" ("we are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep) - not Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Whether he meant it sincerely or was just fed up with being badgered, who knows?
@@johnwalzer9187 Thank you. I can see what you mean and it makes a lot of sense given how Williams doesn't accompany his work with a description of sorts. Still until now, I've always envisioned this work as being a depiction of war as it just suits so well.
5:00 = inspiration for Hedwig's theme?
20:15 = saxophone solo in third movement
It hardly reduces it to program music to note the time it was written and that it might have been influenced by that time.
👍🏻👏🏻
Great symphony and performance. A pity that the listed track times are total rubbish!
Frank Howes, not Frank Howe....DUR!
Who are the two persons interviewed at the beginning ?
Simon Heffer journalist is one
Simon Heffer wrote a biography of Vaughan Williams
As fantastic as this music is, for me this is all a bit too quick, thereby missing all sorts of details and finesse missing out on what RVW is telling us. The Boult version is still gorgeous and as intense as the music.
Shame the audio is out of sync!
Second movement has some Jerry Goldsmith vibes to it, or the other way round, rather.
EXQUISITO
First of all very nice and smooth played. Bravo that someone is performing this master piece of a symphony for people to here!! saying that I think Adrian Boult and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra already made the deffinitive version many years ago on record!
The Epiloge in this performance is way too fast in tempo, that makes it too unemotional and the mysterious feeling gets gets lost. Conductors today could learn a lot about tempo listening to the great maestro of all time Bernstein!!
Tend to agree. I find the tempo here a little fast throughout, losing some detail. Very fine playing though.
Last movement destroyed by audience
The guy blowing in gold needs to clean his instrument the saxophone 🎷