Customer Rating:  
Summary: Pleasant but Wanting
Comment: As an overview or introduction to some of Ralph Vaughan Williams most well-known and beloved works--the Tallis Fantasia, the Greensleeves Fantasia, The Lark Ascending--this set from Decca will service most needs. It features an attractive program that, alongside the more popular works, includes some that aren't so universally well-known yet probably deserve to be--namely the Oboe Concerto and the Concerto Grosso.
The problem I have, as someone who has known most of these works for many years, is with the performances. The wonderful, spritely Oboe Concerto is given a dull and quite slow performance that seems to want to bring out pastoral qualities that aren't entirely there (it has its pastoral moments, but it's actually a very vivacious, impish piece). I was quite disappointed when I first heard it and immediately regretted no longer owning the Nimbus, Maurice Bourge recording.
The Tallis Fantasia too is disappointing. I find it quite under-played and interpreted in a somewhat 'choppy' manner--I wanted more flowing lines, more sweeping, powerful climaxes. It's all a bit too subdued.
Most of the other performances fare better but I still can't help but feel that Decca are being pretty stingy here: I mean, really, is Barry Wordsworth conducting the New Queen's Hall Orchestra the best they could give us for the Tallis, the Norfolk Rhapsody no.1 and In the Fen Country? I know it's a budget release but they have better in their vaults I'm sure.
Despite all this, it's not a HORRIBLE compilation and many will enjoy it as an introduction or sampling of Vaughan William's gorgeous music, but I strongly suggest that if you know these pieces well you should look elsewhere.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring, noble, and also relaxing!
Comment: Hi. I am familiar with a lot of classical music. However, I knew little about the oeuvre of Vaughan Williams. What a great find! Getting so much of his instrumental work is truly a bargain. He evokes the English countryside and folk traditions very effectively. "The Lark Ascending" is relaxing while also being a virtuoso piece of work. Makes me wonder if J.R.R. Tolkien, with his love for rural England, ever attended a concert by Vaughan Williams...
Highly recommended! :)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Music
Comment: Each piece on this CD is wonderful to listen to. My 2 year old daughter takes her nap everyday with this CD playing softly in the background. This CD is a great deal as it includes 2 CD's including Vaughan Williams: Fantasies; the Lark Ascending; Five Variants. Which is also a wonderful CD, we got it for 2 friends at our church. But better to get this CD with 2 CD's for the price of one. My favorite is Fanatasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis!
Customer Rating:
Summary: I love this composer
Comment: While not all his works are to my taste, his pastoral ones are so gorgeous that you don't really care that the more boisterous ones are wanting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Balanced & Refined English Folk Song Adaptations
Comment: Vaughan Williams is certainly one of the consummate English composers who took the folk song of his country and compsed delightful orchestra works around them.
This budget worthy 2-CD set displays this in two parts, the first performed by the Acadamey of St.Martin in-the-Fields while the second disc features more period instruments with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra and the London Philharmonic.
Celia Nicklin is superb with the Oboe Concerto nusancing this pastoral yet lively offering. Iona Brown likewise contributes a fine solo violin performance with "The Lark Ascending"
The strings also provide a strong offering on the "Tallis Fantasia", one of his strongest compositions on this selection.
Excellent example of this prominent English composer's love with folk song interpretation, in this recording done passionately and naturally.
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