Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Job: A Masque for Dancing (1931)
Old King Cole. Ballet for Orchestra (1923)
The Running Set. Traditional Dance Tunes for Orchestra (1933)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Manze
rec. 2022, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool UK
Onyx 4240 [75]
I was keen to review this disc for several reasons. It’s a substantial addendum to Andrew Manze’s complete cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies; I’ve reviewed all the earlier releases in the series and found much to admire in them. Furthermore, Job is rarely heard in our concert halls, more’s the pity, and the only live performance I’ve ever been able to attend was conducted by Andrew Manze. That was way back in 2014 at a concert in Birmingham; that was before he began his symphony cycle with the RLPO and also just before he commenced work as principal conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Hannover. I was impressed by what I saw and heard that evening in Symphony Hall and towards the end of my review for Seen and Heard I said this: “I hope …that he’ll bang the drum for Vaughan Williams in Hannover. On the evidence of this concert, he’s a doughty champion of RVW’s music.” I don’t know how much VW Manze programmed in Germany, but he certainly continued to bang the drum for the composer, as his recorded symphony cycle proved.
I also have a personal reason for seeking out this disc. In 2022 I had the good fortune to sing in a performance of A Sea Symphony at the Proms (review). The conductor of that performance was Andrew Manze. Though just occasionally I thought his tempi were a bit brisk, as was the case on his CD (review), overall, he impressed me on several fronts. He proved to be a very efficient rehearser; he displayed great attention to detail and a command of the score; and, as I had noted in Birmingham as a member of the audience, his conducting was extremely clear.
My final and most important reason for wishing to hear and review this disc is that I consider Job to be among VW’s greatest works; I’d rate it as his orchestral masterpiece, even surpassing his achievements in the nine symphonies.
Before considering Job, however, I’ll deal with the other two offerings on the programme. The inclusion of Old King Cole and The Running Set represents intelligent programming because, chronologically, these two scores come from either side of Job. More significantly, both works are steeped in English folk song and though I believe that all the melodies in Job are original, VW very firmly paid homage to a number of traditional dance forms: the pavane, the galliard and the sarabande. That said, neither The Running Set nor Old King Cole are among VW’s most compelling compositions. The Running Set was composed for the 1936 National Folk Dance Festival. VW uses four traditional tunes, all identified in Lewis Foreman’s booklet notes. The result is attractive and Manze and the RLPO play it with vigour but, to me, it seems rather ‘rumpty-tum’ in nature.
Old King Cole has been recorded just twice, I think; by Boult and Hickox. Ralph Moore, in his review of a recent remastering of the Boult recording highlighted the positives, but I can’t escape his verdict that the score is “mostly raucous”. To be fair, there are some episodes of pure magic when a violin, representing the Three Fiddlers of the story, plays extended solo passages. Here, the violinist is Eva Thorarinsdottir; she plays with great poetry and sensitivity. The score as a whole is colourful, but though there is a plot of sorts Old King Cole has nothing like the narrative strength of Job. The RLPO plays the music with dash and enthusiasm. I can see the logic in programming these two scores on this disc but, quite frankly, I wish some more interesting music had been chosen.
I’ve deliberately got the ‘fillers’ out of the way first in order to concentrate on Andrew Manze’s performance of Job. It is a magnificent score, rich in ideas and imagination; Manze and the RLPO do it full justice. Though it’s not stated explicitly in the booklet, I understand that the recording was made at two live performances in June 2022. Producer Andrew Keener, a seasoned VW hand, and engineer Chris Tann have captured the performance most faithfully. To my ears, there’s a degree of prominence to the woodwind – though not excessively so – and that’s fine with me since the woodwind parts are so interesting and important. The other sections of the orchestra are very well recorded too. When I started collecting recordings everything was set down in the studios. Now, largely for economic reasons, many commercial recordings stem from live performances and the technical teams have grown adept – as is the case here – at recording the music with studio-like fidelity. The excellence of the engineering is crucial in a score such as this where inner detail abounds and dynamic contrasts play such an important role.
I admired Manze’s approach to Job very much indeed. He characterises the music well, bringing out the drama, but also ensuring that the orchestra imparts radiance to the many passages of great beauty. Right at the start I loved the pastel beauty of the playing in the ‘Introduction’ and the ‘Pastoral Dance’ – there’s some mellifluous woodwind work to admire. Then, after the first brazen interjection by Satan, we hear the ‘Saraband of the Sons of God’. What a fine, noble tune this is; the RLPO really make it sing.
Then, in the first of the dramatic contrasts in which the score abounds, we experience ‘Satan’s Dance of Triumph’. In complete contrast to much of what has gone before, the music really snarls here; the RLPO delivers the goods. A little later comes ‘Job’s Dream’. Here, I greatly admired the delicacy of the RLPO strings. But then (tr 4 2:16) comes the ‘Dance of Plague, Pestilence, Famine and Battle’. Here, VW demonstrates all his skills as a vivid, even graphic orchestrator. Manze and the orchestra play this with great bite and urgency. Having said that, I wonder if Manze’s pacing is a bit too swift: it’s extremely exciting, but I doubt that dancers would be able to cope with this tempo. On the other hand, Manze’s measured tempo for the following ‘Dance of the Three Messengers’ seems to me to be ideally judged; hereabouts there’s more outstanding playing from the woodwind section.
Recently, I sampled, with colleagues in the MusicWeb International Listening Studio, the next two sections of the work. We were very complimentary about the recorded sound and I’m glad to say that I had the same positive impression on my equipment at home. In the ‘Dance of Job’s Comforters’ I like the wheedling contributions from the oily saxophone – though a few glissandi wouldn’t have come amiss. ‘Job’s Curse’ (tr 6, 2:16) is a cry of despair, powerfully articulated here. The ‘Vision of Satan’ is a huge moment, as it should be. Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall boasts an organ made by the local firm, Rushworth and Dreaper. The instrument was installed in 1939; I understand it has recently been restored (between 2020 and 2022) by another Liverpool-based business, Henry Willis & Sons Ltd. It sounds magnificent here, making a mighty impact. The organ isn’t as overwhelming as is the case on Sir Andrew Davis’s 2016 Bergen recording (review) but actually, I’ve come to think that the Bergen organ is a bit too much of a good thing. In Liverpool the proportions are better, I think.
Immediately after that dreadful moment, VW changes the mood utterly with ‘Elihu’s Dance of Youth and Beauty’. This is serene music, crowned by a wonderful violin solo. Here, the player is Thelma Hardy and her tone ravishes the ear. She spins a beguiling line. The recording presents this radiant episode just as successfully as was the case with the power of the preceding section. The following ‘Pavane of the Sons of the Morning’ contains music that offers steady English reassurance. I think Manze judges this to perfection. He’s quite brisk – but not over-hasty – in the ‘Galliard of the Sons of the Morning’. Then, in the ‘Epilogue’ VW brings his Masque full circle, revisiting the music of the ‘Introduction’. We now recognise the wisdom of old age. Despite all his tribulations, Job has come through, as illustrated by music that is serene and contented. Manze and the RLPO impart a gentle glow to these pages.
This is a highly persuasive account of Job. I’m so pleased that Andrew Manze has recorded it as an epilogue, if you will, to his fine cycle of the symphonies. He most certainly has the measure of the score and he obtains splendid playing from the RLPO. If the fillers are not top-drawer VW, then Job is most definitely out of the top drawer. It’s a masterpiece and Andrew Manze does it full justice.
I’ve discussed already the excellence of the recorded sound. To complete the package, Lewis Foreman’s notes are excellent.
I fear that may be the end of Andrew Manze’s exploration of the music of Vaughan Williams on CD. But may I offer a closing thought? The RLPO has the services of the splendid Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. Might there be an opportunity to bring them all together for Andrew Manze to record two of VW’s choral/orchestral works: Dona Nobis Pacem and Santa Civitas? I’m sure he’d make a fine job of both of these visionary works.
Previous review David McDade
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