Fire And Passion Regardless Of Age

The main work on this disk is Symphony No 6 by Vaughan Williams, written at the age of 75 and around the time of the end of WW2and the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is debateable whether those events are portrayed specifically in the symphony but there is a definite bleak landscape being evoked and a fire and anger that would throw off any misconceptions of RVW as a cuddly old gentleman winding down towards the end of his life. The opening of the symphony was used later for a landmark tv series the World At War and other events are linked to parts of the work; certain almost jazzy touches and the use of solo saxophone ( unusual in classical symphonies ) are thought to pay tribute to a dance band killed in a bombing raid that hit the Cafe Royal in London. The work is given a scintillating performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. The disk continues with the much earlier In The Fen Country, a tone poem depicting the Lincolnshire landscape, more typical and pastoral perhaps but none the less beautiful for that. It provides a tranquil filler between the bleakness of the 6th symphony and the setting of On Wenlock Edge from A E Houseman's A Shropshire Lad, with its' poignant WW1 resonances in Is My Team still Ploughing. These songs are sung here by Ian Bostridge who does not display any of the mannerisms that sometimes mar his performances.