Vaughan Williams Early Orchestral/Vocal music

[Alan Howe]

...from Dutton, featuring:

Flourish for Glorious John (1957)

Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1896–1902 rev 1904)
edited by Graham Parlett (2011)

The Steersman (1906)
words by Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
realised and orchestrated by Martin Yates (2022)

The Future (ca. 1908)
words by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
completed and orchestrated by Martin Yates (2019)

World Premiere Recordings [The Future, The Steersman]

Lucy Crowe, soprano [The Future]
Jacques Imbrailo, baritone [The Steersman]
Andrew Von Oeyen, piano [Fantasia]

BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus/Neil Ferris chorusmaster [The Future, The Steersman]
conducted by
Martin Yates
Thomas Payne (assistant conductor)
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7411

[Alan Howe]

This is a treasurable CD of RVW's forgotten early music, valuable first of all for his once-discarded 20-minute long 'Fantasia' which sounds like nothing else of the period, although the booklet notes mention Brahms and Rachmaninov - of which I can hear barely a trace! This is the work of a composer determined to be his own man.

'The Steersman' is Vaughan Williams in 'Sea Symphony' mode, which isn't surprising as it was originally intended as an extra movement for that work, preceding the finale. Evidently it is thought that the idiom, being more advanced than the rest of the Sea Symphony, would not have been a good fit; it would also have made the symphony 10 minutes longer! Whatever is the case, this is a superb work.

'The Future' seems to be the piece that has required the most reconstruction work on the CD. All I can say is that the result is a blazing 33-minute choral/orchestral masterpiece. This is surely a shoo-in for the Last Night of the Proms. Come on BBC - your resident orchestra and chorus already know the work, so put it on for a wider audience to hear! And kudos to conductor/reconstruction expert, Martin Yates!
 

[semloh]

Alan, thank you so much for drawing attention to this wonderful release, and for explaining the background. For one reason or another, there is still a lot of VW's music that has never been recorded, and it's heartening to see something new being issued. Martin Yates is a champion!