Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Grainger:...

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Grainger: Irish Tune from ... | John Sant'Ambrogio, Samuel Barber, ... | A Desert Island Disc

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Vaughan Williams: ...

	Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Barber: Adagio for Strings; Grainger: Irish Tune from ... John Sant'Ambrogio, Samuel Barber, ... Telarc, 1990 average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Lush 19th and 20th century compositions

I purchased this album (first on cassette then on CD) at the beginning of my interest in classical music. This collection is uniformly dramatic and, with one exception, unforgetable.

Vaughn Williams' Fantasia is a beautiful, sweeping rush of of sound and silence. It is by far the longest track on the album, and not something to put on for gentle background music, as the piece moves from piano to forte.

Ironically, Satie's two pieces (written for piano, arranged for strings by Debussey) are described as "wallpaper music", in that they are meant to be heard as much as wallpaper is meant to be seen. Still, the first of the two Gymnopedie is sweet and sad, and the second is a little more sophisticated and aware. Note: I do think that the tracks are mislabeled on the CD; I checked the sheet music for Gymnopedies #1 and #3, and they did not correspond to the numbers on this albumn.

Despite its use in movies, I had never heard Barber's Adagio for Strings until this album, and it brought me to tears. I will argue to anyone who cares to listen that this is the finest recording (at least, that I have yet encountered). It is slightly less adagio than many, but other recordings do not have the courage to push forward the dissonance that drives the piece. When it builds and builds to the climax, and then holds there, it rips your heart out. Slatkin is a fantastic showman, and gets every bit of the drama out of this piece. Absolutely love it.

Faure's Pavenne is a nice antidote to the operatic emotion of the Adagio. A little cynical, a little jaded, but still there is beauty in the world.

Unfortunately for me, the "Danny Boy" interpritation sticks out like a particularly sore thumb. While every piece on this CD is emotional, this one feels manipulative. It doesn't have the complexity of any of the previous pieces. More than any of the others, it sounds like a movie score, written and performed to punch up the emotion of a scene. Not surprisingly, I usually skip this one.

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A Desert Island Disc

There are several fine orchestral versions of the Satie's Gymnopédie. One of my favorite collections is by Slatkin's,in beatiful and luminous Telarc sound. It has other meditative pieces to contemplate as well: Vaughan Williams's famous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Barber's Adagio for Strings (a tear-jerker used in the movie "Platoon"); and a version of "Danny Boy" that you won't easily forget. This is one of those discs you keep in your car for traffic jams.

A personal must-have

While I agree with the comments made by Maxwell Johnson regarding the Satie and Barber performances on this CD, I cannot do without this version of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia. It is by far the finest, most thoughtful and most moving rendition I've heard. Sure, the recording quality could be better. However, I have three other better quality recordings of this piece, and the performances are all unlistenable after having my discovery this particular one. I suspect to someone who is more accustomed to hearing a conductor rush through this piece, usually out of fear it'll come across ponderous and tedious, this performance may sound sluggish. But this rendition is truly more fitting for Vaughan Wiilliams, who can be a bit more indulgent for more impatient listeners, and also for Thomas Tallis, whose brilliant theme deserves to be relished thoroughly, istead of merely glanced at in passing on a hurried way to the end.

The other thing is I find the woodwind performance on the Faure to be excellant, and seeing this piece is usually recorded as the choral version, thus the voices obscure Faure's gorgeous woodwind orchestration, this is a rare delight.

I am happy this CD is still available, despite it's drawbacks. While I doubt I'll ever like the Satie pieces on this (they are rather lifeless), I can enjoy the Barber despite the performance's flaws (it's an overrated piece anyhow). Regardless, I just consider those extra tracks to the Vaughan Williams and Faure, which make this CD worth my money.

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A Great Listen

Upon a first listen, I was impressed with the orchestra's ability to feel the music so well. The Vaughn Williams is exceptional, the beginning seems to float in out of a mist and Slatkin takes great care to make sure the work dosen't rush. The reason for four stars and not five is because of the "Adagio". This work has great dynamic contrast, but it feels rushed. The strings, especially at the climax, make the work sound overdramatic. The same can be said for the "Irish Tune."
Telarc's usually brilliant sound lies flat and lifeless, and too quiet for playback volume.

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Where's the Movie?

Last night while watching for the first time the often trite but well-made sea epic Master and Commander with Russell Crowe, I noticed several familiar musical themes popping up throughout, one of which was the hauntingly portentous Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by my favorite 20th century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

This album from the early '80s, no doubt released to exhibit the softer dynamic wonders of Telarc's new digital sound, collects several shorter pieces in a contiguous program of early-mid 20th century Romanticism. All of them would strike one as familiar, and with the possible exception of the Vaughan Williams piece, are played here in the unthreatening manner one might easily describe as "beautiful music". There's also Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, used in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning film Platoon; Erik Satie's fancifully titled Gymnopédies, orchestrated piano pieces seemingly heard ubiquitously in the "new age" era and used to good effect in the French film Diva; Gabriel Fauré's lovely Pavane; as well as the closing Danny Boy, heard in ironic context in the film Miller's Crossing. Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony milk the pieces for all the understated lushness they can muster.

The album certainly sounded attractive at the time I bought it, but at only 41 minutes, it's about half the measure of what such a program should rightfully contain on a CD these days...or you can simply press "repeat" as I do.

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