This fine coupling of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fourth and Eighth Symphonies provides an excellent palate-cleanser to those of us cursed with RVW agnosticism.
The Fourth, a seismic, eruptive work, has always suggested to me that the music is of its time (1935) despite the composer's protestations: there's a violent physicality about the music that grips me, though Ryan Wigglesworth's superbly organised performance, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra gleaming and glaring, is a bit short on the music's elemental ferocity. Vladimir Jurowski directs a lovely, characterful version of the exotic Eighth Symphony. This is a relatively gentle work, distinguished by its opening chimes, glowing percussion sounds and its strutting Scherzo for woodwinds alone: music packed with wit in the Shostakovich mould. The familiar, pastoral, archetypal RVW string writing, so beloved of the composer's devotees, characterises the slow movement, where the warmth and beauty of the LPO's string section is captivating. Both symphonies were recorded live in concert in the Royal Festival Hall.
Michael Tumelty
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