Job Done

More music from Vaughan Williams but not a symphony this time. No need to discuss further the stature of VW as a composer, I've already done that in earlier posts. The main work on this cd is Job - A Masque For Dancing. The performers are the English National Philharmonia conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. Job is based on the biblical story of Job but more specifically, it was inspired by a series of watercolours by William Blake portraying the tale. Programmatic in form, there are lengthy descriptions of what each of the nine parts is about. The style ranges from what might be thought of as a typical pastoral theme to start but then develops a much more violent form in places and there are also hints of an oriental tinge to the woodwind parts in particular. Whenever it is now performed, it is as a concert piece only but it was commissioned as a theatrical Elizabethan style masque with with elaborate, scenery, masks and choreography by Ninette De Valois. The other piece on the disk is The Lark Ascending with the violin part played by David Greed. Regularly voted the most popular piece of classical music by listeners to the commercial radio station Classic FM, it might suffer from over exposure but since I don't listen to the kind of radio that would play it every day, this was the first timew I had heard it for ages and it scrubs up very nicely. Nothing wrong with peace, sentiment and nostalgia occasionally.