Works That Need No Defending

I have a few issues with Sir Roger Norrington as a conductor. His evangelical and fundamentalist approach to banning vibrato ( I've always been a creature of compromise and moderation ) and some of his more ingratiating behaviour on the podium. But I am prepared to forget about all that for the wonderful introduction he writes in the booklet notes to this cd in which he pays tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams. The entire piece would bear repeating but a couple of snippets; following an anecdote about the eighty year old VW kissing all the female members of the cast of Sir John In Love prior to going home on the underground, Norrington writes that "these were important clues to the composer as well as to the man who was passionate and idealistic, a natural socialist and man of the people; a marvellously individual composer who just happened to be English but chose his tonalities as freely as Debussy and Ravel and his rhythms as deftly as Stravinsky and Bartok; he may have worn tweed and liked cream buns but his soul was ablaze with glory, pity and anger; he was the greatest man I am ever likely to meet." I quote these remarks at length here since the disk in question is of Symphony No 5 and Symphony No 3 ( Pastoral ) performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Norrington and the two symphonies most likely to be pilloried with the ill considered "cow looking over a gate" criticism. The packaging can't resist a cover photograph of rolling English countryside but to any careful listener it is clear that the symphonies concern much more than a nostalgic depiction of a fading era. And anyway, what's wrong with a little beautiful and evocative orchestral scoring ? Happily, I think a stage has been reached when it is no longer necessary to defend aspects of VW's output from these criticisms.