Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Job: A Masque for Dancing
Old King Cole
The Running Set
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Manze
rec. 2022, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool UK
Reviewed as a digital download from a press preview
Onyx 4240 [75]

I haven’t always been bowled over by Andrew Manze’s series of recordings of the Vaughan Williams’ symphonies, good though they are, but any conductor who makes a point of also recording Job as an essential part of the series is always going to earn my great good will. Not that Job is, in any sense, a symphony by another name. Without it, though, any understanding of VW’s orchestral output is lacking an essential item.

There is an argument that it may in fact be his finest work. Certainly, it embraces virtually all of the important characteristics of his broad range as a composer. The lyrical transcendence of A Lark Ascending sits alongside the acerbic dissonance of the Fourth and Sixth symphonies, the mysticism of Pilgrim’s Progress cheek by jowl with the adventurous orchestration of the last two symphonies, not to mention the monumentality of the Sea Symphony or the Sinfonia Antarctica sitting alongside his folk song inspired early work. It is all there but with a distinctive character of its own. It is a highly dramatic work and the effectiveness of its story telling is only matched, in terms of Vaughan Williams’ theatrical work, by the still mysteriously under-appreciated Riders to the Sea.

Job was written as a ballet but the crucial subtitle A Masque for Dancing reflects the fact that the kind of dancing the composer had in mind was more Morris than plié. I am not aware of it ever securing itself in the dance repertoire though I would love to see how it would fare today on stage. Right from its premiere, it has had to make do with a life in the concert hall. The vividness of its various scenes reflects the inspiration for its genesis lying in William Blake’s illustrations for the book of Job which provides a necessary distance from the religious for VW’s imagination to fire in all its manifold glory.

The first thing to notice about this new recording is that, in a score best known for its thrills and spills, it is very gentle. The opening pastoral scene is exquisite in its pale watercolours. True, VW’s knack for coming up with original orchestral effects is more prominent later in the work but this version, beautifully engineered by Onyx, allows us to hear the subtleties as well as the audacities. The balance of this account lies in this quieter music. It is as if the noisier passages always come back to these more meditative sections where in other versions, for example on my personal favourite account by David Lloyd-Jones with English Northern Sinfonia on Naxos, it feels more like the other way round. Have a listen to the delicate handling of the Dance of the Three Messengers, it is these softer parts of the score that draw the ear. I hadn’t previously noticed how much of Job breathes the same air as Vaughan Williams’ masterpiece, the Fifth symphony.

I do not wish to give the impression that this is an account that lacks clout. Like many other versions, Handley’s superb account with the London Philharmonic comes to mind, Manze’s isn’t one that could be danced to. As with his recording of the Fifth symphony, Manze allows himself considerable flexibility in terms of phrasing, rhythm and tempo but whilst I found this approach a little fussy in the symphony, here in more pictorial music I found it much more convincing. Returning to the Lloyd-Jones recording on Naxos who does conduct the music in stricter, more danceable time, there are gains to be had in terms of hearing what Vaughan Williams had in mind: something closer to the rhythmic beat of country dancing than a tone poem.

There is no holding off on the big question raised by any new recording of Job: how does the organ’s big moment go? The organ of the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall sounds suitably like a Victorian vision of a judgemental God as recorded here but it just didn’t give me goosebumps in the same way as does the organ in Handley’s recording (made with the LPO in St Augustine’s Church, Kilburn, London). It is very grand, very well staged but, ultimately, it wasn’t quite demonic enough. Manze feels much more at home in the dance for Elihu and subsequent Pavane which follows.

It is this last quality of lacking the last ounce of brimstone that sees me withholding a welcome without reservation to this new recording. On the other hand, the Galliard of the Sons of Morning which even with Handley can sound a bit like a military procession, is genuinely joyous in Manze’s hands. This is a bright shining, refreshing account that is consistent with all the virtues of Manze’s cycle of the symphonies and deserves its place alongside Boult, Handley and Lloyd-Jones.

The virtues of this Job are further enhanced by excellent, appropriate and imaginative couplings. Old King Cole, written in 1923, is very much the forgotten man of VW’s theatrical works, though its origins in the homespun world of the English folk revival place it outside of the normal world of either the theatre or of dance. Boult gave it a superb outing in the studio but it hasn’t enjoyed much favour since though, of course, Hickox recorded it!

This is very much VW letting his hair down, arranging folk tunes lightheartedly but with flair, colour and imagination. It brims with love for the material and that comes across vividly in Manze’s handling of it. In amongst the foot stamping and hand clasping, there is much beauty to be found here as in the fine tracery of the Pipe Dance where signs of good work done with Ravel are clearly to be heard. The writing for solo fiddle, on the other hand, could only have come from Vaughan Williams’ own song collecting tramps. The music that puts the bored king to sleep bears an uncanny resemblance to the music of Job. Manze and his Liverpudlian band lap up such delicious writing.

The Running Set from 1933, an even more neglected score, shares similar origins to Old King Cole but on an even more unassuming scale. This is Vaughan Williams in bluff old cove mode and very vigorously and enjoyably it is done by Manze and the RLPO. As with Old King Cole, it deserves to be better known.

These two minor scores function like a divertissement after the main business of Job and together they make fine contributions to one of the most enjoyable VW discs I have heard in some time. They help place Job in a different kind of context from comparisons with the symphonies. The main work emerges in even more vivid colours than usual. If you are in the market for a highly pastoral inflected Job, then this is a recording to hear. For maximum theatricality and a sense of the devilish I will however be sticking with Lloyd-Jones.

David McDade

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