Ralph Vaughan Williams - Film Music, Vol. 3 (Rumon Gamba)

Information

Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams

• (01) The Story of a Flemish Farm
• (08) The Loves of Joanna Godden
• (09) Bitter Springs

Ladies of Manchester Chamber Choir

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Rumon Gamba, conductor

Date: 2006

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010368

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Review

It’s a wrap for this fascinating film score series

Vaughan Williams’s 1942 score for the wartime propaganda film Flemish Farm was the fourth of 11 big-screen commissions he undertook between 1941 and 1958. He compiled this enjoyable seven-movement suite for a 1945 Prom and it serves up rich pickings, including plentiful echoes of the Fifth and Sixth symphonies.

Written in 1946, VW’s score for The Loves of Joanna Godden (set in and around Romney Marsh and Dungeness) consisted of music for 25 episodes, 10 of which were extracted with the composer’s approval for a 1948 recording. That selection has in turn been reconstructed and expanded by Stephen Hogger into an evocative 15-minute sequence, the icy chill that descends from 5'20" (complete with wordless female chorus) foreshadowing VW’s next film score, Scott of the Antarctic.

Bitter Springs (1950) also hailed from Ealing Studios. From a mere 38 bars of material penned by VW, music director Ernest Irving (dedicatee-to-be of the Sinfonia antartica) fashioned nine numbers, a further seven being of his own devising. Grateful as the composer was to Irving for the ‘marvels you have done with my silly tune’, the quality of inspiration is less consistent here, though in the swaggering main title there’s a lyrical idea which intriguingly anticipates the flowing viola melody that ushers in the second half of the Ninth Symphony’s finale (beam to 1'52" on track 9 to hear what I mean).

As on previous instalments these are handsomely groomed performances from the BBC Philharmonic under Rumon Gamba in superbly natural and vivid sound. Michael Kennedy’s notes carry the requisite authority. All in all, a CD well worth snapping up by VW fans and film-music buffs alike.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/july06/RVW_Film3_CHAN10368.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-film-music-of-ralph-vaughan-williams-vol-3-mw0000441582

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Music-Ralph-Vaughan-Williams/dp/B000F9SZBM

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Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, with all his major compositions have been recorded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams

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Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972), is an English conductor. He studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst and Sir Colin Davis at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010. In October 2008, he was named the next chief conductor and music director of NorrlandsOperan. In March 2011, Gamba was named chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. Gamba has conducted a number of recordings for the Chandos Records label, particularly in their Film Music series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumon_Gamba

http://www.rumongamba.com/

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