Nothing Wrong With English Pastoral

I won't spend too much time discussing this BBC Music mag cover disk of English music since that old repertoire duplication thing applies. There are three works on the disk, Elgar's Enigma Variations hasn't had its' turn off the shelf yet for the commercial recording I have but I will wait for that to roll around before discussing it. Tippett's Ritual Dances from the Midsummer Marriage has already been considered. Which just leaves the third piece, Vaughan Williams's sublime Five Variants of Dives and Lazurus. Maybe it is the sort of work which reinforces misleading impressions of VW only being an English pastoralist but it is another of his wonderful string adaptations of a collected folk tune and deeply soulful. It is played here by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales lead and directed by Lesley Hatfield. The other two works are also performed by the BBC NOW, with Tadaaki Otaka conducting the Elgar and David Atherton the Tippett.