Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony, Hodie

Richard Hickox

Released on 31/08/2009 by Warner Classics
Main artists: Richard Hickox
Genre: Klassiek

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Language available : english

Richard Hickox's 1989 Virgin recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony is closer to the mainstream performing tradition than to the exceptionally expansive reading he recorded in 2006, which was released as a super audio CD on Chandos. The tempos in Hickox's comparatively youthful version with the Philharmonia Orchestra are brisker overall, the accentuation is stronger, and the levels of energy are much higher than in the later recording he made with the London Symphony Orchestra, where Hickox plainly adopted an elegiac tone and a gentler, sweeping feeling. Indeed, the soft dynamics in that rendition sometimes approach the threshold of audibility. However, the thrust of the earlier performance is quite reminiscent of Adrian Boult's great, robust interpretations, displaying a tough pugnacity that emphasizes the virility of Walt Whitman's poetry over its tenderness and mysticism, as well as the boisterous orchestral activity that Vaughan Williams used to paint scenes of nautical heroism and oceanic power. Yet in both the 1989 and 2006 recordings, Hickox offered moving accounts of the final movement, a setting of Whitman's The Explorers that contains some of the most gorgeous choral music Vaughan Williams ever composed and inspires most performers to rise to the occasion. The audio is quite broad and deep, and the sonorities are quite vivid, particularly the thunderous timpani rolls that hold nothing back.
In 1990, Hickox recorded Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Hodie: A Christmas Cantata for EMI, two holiday choral favorites that complement each other well, despite having been created more than four decades apart. The subdued, folk-inspired quality of much of Vaughan Williams' music remained more or less constant through the years in his choral writing, so even though he adopted a more sophisticated and sometimes astringent style in later years, including irregular rhythms and spiky dissonances that never would have passed in the music of his youth, there is a common thread in his choices of modes and harmonies that unites both cantatas. On this CD, the modestly scored and rather short Fantasia serves as a serene introduction for the fairly symphonic and dynamic Hodie, which comes just under an hour in length. Both works receive their due from Hickox, who leads the London Symphony Chorus and the Choristers of St. Paul with the London Symphony Orchestra with reverent pacing but also shapes phrases with a smooth lyricism that befits their mood of quiet joy. EMI's recording is detailed and focused, so every note can clearly be heard. This 2009 twofer from EMI Classics presents both CDs in their original track sequence and in a trimline package.

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Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony, Hodie

Richard Hickox

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A Sea Symphony, I. A Song for All Seas, All Ships (Moderato maestoso): Behold the sea itself (chorus)