Vaughan Williams gets a two-week US festival
NewsBard Music Festival, believe it or not, plans to explore the ‘life and times of One of 20th century’s greatest symphonists and Britain’s foremost composers in “Vaughan Williams and His World” (Aug 4–13)’.
The festival is at Annandale-on-Hudson, upstate New York. The symphonies will be conducted by its founder, Leon Botstein.
Good for them! VW is one of our greatest composers and his symphonic output remarkable (not to mention groundbreaking works such as An Oxford Elegy
– one of so many). That stupid comment of Warlock of ‘cows looking over a gate’ needs to be consigned to the dustbin once and for all!
Deutsche Grammophon has never recorded an RVW symphony, although 220+ recordings exist on other labels.
DGG has never gotten over the rejection of the Teutonic school by 20th century British composers. And RVW would have to rate high on their “hate list”!
Could not agree more!
Vaughn-Williams will have company this Summer. In July, Bard College notes an earlier English composer: Henry VIII.
However, instead of Henry’s “Pastime With Good Company” they’ll perform the Saint-Saens opera about the music-loving Tudor king and his family.
That’s great! But wait, Botstein? Hard pass. The guy is an arrogant, egomaniacal charlatan with ZERO conducting skill.
Martin Bernheimer used to say that, but nicely because he admired Botstein’s energy and enterprise.
Typical nasty comment of a troll. Even if admitting faults,which all of us have, your comment is clearly nonsense – ” zero conducting skill “. Botstein certainly has merit and part of that is championing repertoire outside of the current concert hall range, as shown by this Vaughan Williams event. ( Though many other examples could be mentioned.)
Yes…..I flew from UK to NY to see his ELGAR Apostles; first in USA, it was though,t since the composer did it. The swift tempi were impressive and he grasped the idiom well. We need conductors who renew the repertoire.
Now that’s not nice. I’ve seen Botstein at work a few times. He brought the Jerusalem Symphony through my home town several years ago and it was a splendid concert. Then I went to Bard a couple of years back when he did a Korngold retrospective. He did a more than acceptable job with the symphony. His dedication to the obscure and neglected repertoire is to be commended. Who else has dedicated festivals to Franz Schmidt or Erich Korngold? Now RVW?
Well, if you stick to the more obscure works, you aren’t really risking any competition. The henri viii at bard today was clumsy at best. And Botstein’s pre concert talk was quackery. But where else could you hear it?
Leon Botstein is special and has always had great programming.
Kudos.
About time. We get very little of VW over here – I personally asked Simon Rattle (face to face) three times over a period of 20 years to please bring a VW symphony to Philadelphia with him, but all we ever got was Mahler – coals to Newcastle as it were. Aside from one fabulous performance of Job by Leonard Slatkin guesting during a blizzard with the NY Phil nearly 30 years ago, we have had little representation of major VW works over here, certainly when compared to the lavish over-representation of Mahler.
Robert Spano did a fair bit of RVW in his time at the Atlanta Symphony, but otherwise, yes, he hasn’t gotten his due from American orchestras. (Choirs have done a bit better.)
Previn in L.A. but it was always with a lot of hassle from Bernheimer.
As an avid Philadelphia Orchestra concert attendee, I have heard this great orchestra perform only one RVW symphony. Maurice Abravanel conducted the Sixth at a summer concert, outdoors, 60 years ago. Andre Previn did perform (and record) the Tallis Fantasia and Symphony 5 here, but that was with the Curtis SO.
I must defend Sir Simon Rattle. Though he has not brought us RVW symphonies, without him, I would never have heard Walton’s masterpiece Symphony 1 in concert!
Andrew Davis did some VW in Philadelphia, but he’s become of the increasingly long list of experienced conductors over the age of 60 who no longer return here (e.g. David Zinman, who was an important presence during the 1990s). And, honestly, they are missed.
While it’s true, the Philadelphia Orchestra could have done much more RVW over the past half century, I did attend a concert with William Smith conducting “A London Symphony,” back in 1990. In fact, in the same season (1989-90), the orchestra also performed the Oboe Concerto, with Richard Woodhams as soloist. The “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” was done in 1990 and 1992. Yannick conducted the 4th Symphony in 2015. And Ormandy conducted “A Pastoral Symphony” in 1972, for the composer’s centenary. I don’t know that this is an exhaustive list; just the concerts I attended, except for the Ormandy, which was before my time. (I would have been five years old.) I learned about it when stumbling across audio from a radio broadcast on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl9Jc4ni1yA
I was also at the Previn/Curtis performance of the 5th in 1995 – subsequently recorded in Collingswood, NJ for release on EMI – but in the composer’s sesquicentennial year, it was like panting in the desert. With few exceptions, U.S. orchestras couldn’t have been less interested.
I will be attending all of the Vaughan Williams concerts at Bard.
I recall the orchestra scheduling VW 4th at least twice but then cancelling it at the last minute under (I think) both Muti and Sawallisch.
When they get to the deck called English Orchestral Music, the top card is always Enigma and that’s enough for a few years.
I have never seen Leon Botstein conduct, or, obviously, played under his direction, so I cannot opine on the views expressed above questioning his competence, although I like very much his recording of the Dohnányi Symphony No. 1, which at the very least would not seem a piece even the London Philharmonic could play in its sleep, so he must have been doing something on the podium.
But I have followed the programming at the Bard Music Festival (with envy) over the years and thus find our host’s “believe it or not” about the upcoming RVW concerts a rather odd expression of unwarranted amazement. It is exactly what one would and should expect of Bard, actually.
And as feeble and fitful as my own (long past) orchestra playing career was, it DID include two Vaughn Williams symphonies, No 2 and No 5. Different orchestras and conductors, and the audiences seemed enthused at both.
Two. Heh — that’s the same number of Dvořák symphonies I did, and double the number of the Sibelius (hey, I did say it was a feeble and fitful career).