Ralph Vaughan Williams - world famous in the UK?

[eschiss1]

ah, interesting, thanks.
I see that Stojowski's symphony is from 1897, btw.

Swedish Radio seems to have a 1978 broadcast of the Sea Symphony in their archives (smdb.kb.se), not sure who's conducting; and others with Sixten Ehrling conducting the 4th symphony (1973 performance); Stig Westerberg conducting the Swedish Radio sym. in symphony no.6 in e (another 1973 performance).
(And there is an LP- transferred to Caprice's album The Virtuoso Tuba - in which Segerstam conducts VW's tuba concerto, with Michael Lind and the Stockholm Philharmonic.) Apparently Riccardo Muti was music director (conductor?) in a season when the Chicago Symphony performed the concerto too (Gene Pokorny).

Wondering if one or more of certain well-known Hungarian-American conductors (Szell, Solti) ever touched VW's works aside from the Fantasia... Tallis... (for let it be said if need be that many of these conductors who seem not to have touched a note of his else, have conducted, yay, recorded even, the Tallis Fantasia. Enough so that it didn't seem worth noting Jarvi, etc. as European continental "exceptions" merely on -that- ground alone. )

[eschiss1]

That said, did anyone mention Désiré Defauw (1885-1960)? He introduced the 5th symphony to the Chicago Symphony, March 22/23 1945. Belgian conductor. (Emigrated to London during WWI, returned to Belgium, then left for North America for I'm guessing obvious reasons in 1940.)

[Alan Howe]

We're way off topic here. Back to VW, please.

[joelingaard]

We're way off topic here. Back to VW, please.

We are very sorry.

[eschiss1]

... ... I must protest. I mention that Defauw introduced (was the first to conduct with the CSO) Vaughan Williams' 5th (therefore, given its Chicago premiere -by- a Continental European) and this is offtopic? I think I misunderstand the topic...

[Alan Howe]

It was the Stojowski discussion that I meant!

In the case of Defauw, again we have a connection with Britain. For example (according to Wikipedia),during World War I he became a refugee, working in London where he performed at the Wigmore Hall, performing John Ireland's Violin Sonata No. 2 with the composer at the piano. What I'm looking for is a (continental) European conductor who has no connection with Britain...

Ehrling didn't record any VW.

Unless we've missed something, the silence from European conductors appears deafening...

[joelingaard]

Unless we've missed something, the silence from European conductors appears deafening...

More deaf with pandemic now I think.

[Justin]

In the US, I think RVW is known through The Lark Ascending, rather than his name. I am referring to the general population rather than concertgoers.

[eschiss1]

Ehrling did not -commercially- record any VW. He made a broadcast in 1973, as did Westerberg, that was picked up by Swedish radio, apparently.

Very little Vaughan Williams seems to be predicted for the next few months - symphony no.5 in Auckland conducted by James Judd, Five Variants in Cordoba conducted by Carlos Mena (April 29), perhaps other things elsewhere. (And yes, to fail to take the pandemic into account here for the recent silence is like failing to take the... anyway, yes.)

And John Storgards conducted the 6th in Manchester just 6-odd years ago (21-2-2015). So European conductors' interest is somewhat higher than maintained, I think.

Mark- on this subject, is this your card, I mean review?

[Mark Thomas]

Ooh, that's spooky! No, not me. I wish I was still that young (and had that much hair)

[Wheesht]

The performance in Freiburg in June 2015 that I mentioned was by the ORSOphilharmonic, under the baton of the German conductor Wolfgang Roese. More about him can be found on the ORSO website (in German only). There's also this brief extract from A Sea Symphony on Youtube.

[Alan Howe]

John Storgards conducted the 6th in Manchester

Er, quite. Another UK connection, though. In March 2011 Storgårds was appointed principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic (based in Manchester), effective January 2012. He now has the title of chief guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.

The point I'm trying to make here is that there seem to be very few conductors from continental Europe who have taken up Vaughan Williams without any form of connection with the UK. That's why I'm most interested in Hilgers' recording as he seems to have no UK connection at all:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7944444--vaughan-williams-sea-songs-etc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hilgers

The rule of thumb seems to be: a continental European conductor may well programme Vaughan Williams while working in the UK, but he/she is very unlikely to do so on the continent. I think this supports Mark T's original sense of the matter.

[Mark Thomas]

It seems that Alan has identified the circumstances under which RVW is played outside the UK - by conductors who have been exposed to him whilst they were working here. The question which follows on from that, then, is why only (or mostly only) in those circumstances? Why hasn't RVW's music found a place in the repertoire of continental Europe for example, when at least a few of Elgar's works (the symphonies, cello and violin concertos and Enigma Variations) seems to have done? Might it be that his sound world has come to represent a uniquely "English" sound, whereas Elgar's is more cosmopolitan, more clearly linked to the 19th century German mainstream?

[Reverie]

You could argue that Sibelius is a uniquely "Finnish" sound? or Scandinavian? I suspect his symphonies are played all over the world. Maybe VW's english folk song roots are too esoteric just as Bartok is to Hungary? Interesting question though.

[Alan Howe]

Well, maybe one factor is that Sibelius' starting-point is the sound-world of Tchaikovsky (e.g. Symphony No.1), whereas VW's is that of Parry/Elgar (e.g. Sea Symphony).

However, we need to remember that Sibelius wasn't always as widely played as he is today - see this interesting article:
http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/js_saveltajana_03.html

I would also say that VW (on the whole) is a more progressive (and certainly often thornier) composer than Sibelius - and continued developing into his old age, whereas Sibelius wrote very little after the age of 60 in the mid-1920s. It is harder, I think, to grasp the totality of VW's oeuvre than it is that of Sibelius.