Antonio Pappano - Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony, Maconchy Nocturne - Import SACD Hybrid

Credits:

Antonio Pappano

Description:

Vaughan Williams’ Largest Symphony A Grand Ode to the Sea: *The Sea Symphony* A performance bursting with tremendous energy and brilliance The third installment in the LSO’s complete Vaughan Williams symphony series, conducted by Pappano. This is *The Sea Symphony*, the largest of Vaughan Williams’ nine symphonies. Premiered in 1910, Vaughan Williams’ first symphony, *The Sea Symphony*, was begun in 1903 and took seven years to complete; it was premiered on October 12, 1910, with the composer himself conducting. It is a monumental four-movement work requiring a soprano soloist, a baritone soloist, a mixed choir, and a full orchestra. The lyrics feature excerpts from the American poet Walt Whitman’s poetry collection *Leaves of Grass*. Whitman was a vital spiritual source for Vaughan Williams throughout his life, and *Symphony of the Sea* is his largest-scale work based on Whitman’s poetry. The opening chorus, “Behold, the Sea!,” is one of the work’s most memorable moments. It begins with a heroic fanfare played by the brass section, and the moment the chorus sings the word “sea,” an astonishing harmonic shift occurs, unleashing an explosion of energy right from the start. The second movement, “On the Beach at Night, Alone,” is a quiet, nocturne-like movement that meditatively depicts the connection between the universe and humanity. In the third movement, “The Waves” (a scherzo), the movement of the waves and the vitality of the sea are expressed through sparkling orchestration. The fourth movement, “The Explorers,” is a grand finale themed around the soul’s journey and adventures into the unknown, ultimately fading away amid a quiet and mystical sense of elation. Although this work demands a high level of technical skill from both the orchestra and the choir, Pappano’s conducting brings out the orchestra’s brilliant timbre and the choir’s surging sense of unity. This recording uses the new edition edited by David Matthews, published by Steiner & Bell in 2025. In 1945, Vaughan Williams informed Adrian Boult in a letter of revisions to the orchestration, which included the significant change of replacing the horns in the opening two measures with trombones. In addition, there were various other revisions, both large and small—such as the addition of an organ part to the scherzo—which are reflected for the first time in the new score used here. The coupling, Elizabeth Maconkey’s (1907–1994) *Nocturne for Orchestra*, depicts a meditative yet somewhat unsettling nocturnal scene unfolding beneath the moon as it travels across the night sky. While influenced by the pastoral style of Vaughan Williams, her teacher in her youth, the piece also strongly reflects Maconkey’s deep fascination with Central European modernism. Although it is rarely performed, it is a work that leaves an unforgettable impression. LSOLIVE