Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 1 'A Sea Symphony'

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Mark Elder's Vaughan Williams cycle with The Halle is turning out to be the finest since the two by Adrian Boult - and the opening bars of this live recording of A Sea Symphony show why. The... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2015 More…

Release Date: 4th Sep 2015
Catalogue No: CDHLL7542
Label: Hallé
Series: Elder Vaughan Williams Series
Length: 70 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2015

Editor's Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2015
Presto Recording of the Week

4th September 2015
Gramophone Awards

2016

Shortlisted - Orchestral

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Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 1 'A Sea Symphony'

Work length1:10:14

Album only

Katherine Broderick, Roderick Williams
Hallé Orchestra, Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir, Schola Cantorum, Ad Solem
Mark Elder

I. A Song for All Seas, All Ships (Moderato maestoso)

Track length20:19

Album only

II. On the Beach at Night Alone (Largo sostenuto)

Track length11:05

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

III. Scherzo - The Waves (Allegro brillante)

Track length8:27

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

IV. The Explorers (Grave e molto adagio - Andante con moto)

Track length30:23

Album only

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Recording of the Week, Mark Elder conducts Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony

4th September 2015

David listens to Mark Elder's new account of Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, with Roderick Williams, Katherine Broderick and the Hallé.

Hallé announces their latest release, of Vaughan Williams’ masterpiece in a live recording from the stunning 2014 Bridgewater Hall performance.

“This matchless concert of British music closed with an outstanding performance, among the finest ever, of A Sea Symphony .... This was the first time Sir Mark Elder had conducted the work, which made the completeness of his interpretation, at once controlled and ecstatic, all the more startling. I can't imagine the work being better played..”

Reviews

November 2015

Mark Elder's Vaughan Williams cycle with The Halle is turning out to be the finest since the two by Adrian Boult - and the opening bars of this live recording of A Sea Symphony show why. The sweeping grandeur of the moment is wonderfully caught, yet there's no trace of bombast, so that even with the massed choral and orchestral forces, the big paragraphs are shaped with a sense of their lyricism that neither drags nor glibly undercuts the music's epic scale.

4th September 2015

Elder paces the symphony grandly and is rewarded with patrician playing from The Hallé and well-blended singing from his four massed choirs. The two soloists, a strong Katherine Broderick and an articulate Roderick Williams, hold their own. Bathed in the warm acoustic of Bridgewater Hall, a nobility of utterance suffuses the whole performance.

Awards Issue 2015

Elder presides over a majestic performance, brimful of lofty spectacle, abundant temperament and stunning accomplishment...Roderick Williams is on customarily refulgent and intelligent form; soprano Katherine Broderick, too, sings with heaps of passion and drama...The superbly honed choral and orchestral contribution surely testifies to many hours of painstaking preparation.

4th September 2015

Judging the tempi on such a lengthy musical journey is no small task, and Elder’s account is to be praised for the way he avoids either flagging or rushing. A masterclass in choral symphonic music-making and conducting, and almost certainly one of my favourite discs of the year!

30th August 2015

The long finale – a full half-hour – is exceptionally well modulated and shrewdly paced, achieving a fusion of flow and moving intensity in which orchestral and choral colour, together with the deep expressivity and dynamism of both the baritone and the soprano Katherine Broderick, combine to attain inspiring heights.

New York Times 25th November 2015

Mark Elder makes clear Vaughan Williams’s debts to Charles Stanford and Elgar, Wagner and Ravel, carrying them along in a reading of tidal power, patient yet inexorable.

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Recording of the Week, Mark Elder conducts Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony

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