London Philharmonic Orchestra - Vaughan Williams:Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 on CD

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Vladimir Jurowski has a strong affinity with British music, having embraced (both in concert and on the LPO Label) Britten, Holst and increasingly Vaughan Williams, as well as contemporary British composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage and Julian Anderson. Ryan Wigglesworth is the leading composer/conductor of his generation. He works with leading orchestras internationally and is currently English National Opera's Composer in Residence. He has a formidable pedigree with British repertoire including Birtwistle's The Minotaur at Covent Garden and Knussen's Higglety Pigglety Pop! at Aldeburgh, and has already introduced a host of British music, including the Sky Arts Award-winning world premiere of Julian Anderson's The Discovery of Heaven with the LPO. This performance was released on the LPO label in 2013 with The Crazed Moon and the world premiere recording of Fantasias, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. The disc was a Gramophone Editor's Choice and a finalist in their 2014 Awards. Both these Vaughan Williams symphonies were recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall. The Symphony No. 4 concert in May 2013 was part of Southbank Centre's The Rest Is Noise year-long festival of 20th-century music, inspired by Alex Ross's bestselling book of the same name. Review A contrasting pair of Vaughan Williams's symphonies brings unexpected results. The performance of the abrasive Symphony No.4 is so highly charged, its desolate slow movement so reminiscent of Shostakovich, that one suspects a Russian hand must be at work, whereas the conductor is actually a young Englishman, Ryan Wigglesworth. The LPO's Russian principal conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, is in authoritative command of the colourful, more discursive Symphony No.8. Both symphonies are well played and recorded, live performances in every sense of the term. **** --Ft,07/02/15 Here are two great and very different symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). Anyone familiar with the composer's own recording of the Fourth (available on Naxos in a fine transfer, and mandatory listening) will know the vehemence and threatening tension that he unleashes. Ryan Wigglesworth does similarly, creating conflict and, in the slow movement, chilly wastelands. First-performed in 1935, this music does seem to reflect the anxiety of the years leading to the outbreak of World War II. Explicitly recorded, and superbly played, with power, passion and identification, driven with fury, this LPO account stands alongside the very best existing recordings. The Eighth Symphony (completed in 1955) is not an old man's folly (and he had a Ninth to write) but rather a resourceful piece of immense variety. The movements include an ingenious set of variations without a theme, then a snappy Scherzo for woodwinds and brass and a deeply eloquent one for strings. The symphony ends with a festive finale festooned with percussion. Wonderful stuff. If Previn remains my yardstick, Vladimir Jurowski has the measure of the music's depth, suggestion and vivid character. The LPO (now more spaciously recorded) turns in a poetic and brilliant account. **** Sinfini Music, 14/3/15 . //// Vladimir Jurowski's Eighth at once restores one's faith in the art of conducting. Performance ***(**) Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine, May'15 The Fourth and Eighth Symphonies make a sharply contrasted pairing. The Fourth, one of Vaughan Williams' greatest symphonic achievements, is by turns angry and fearful, and projected in raw primary orchestral colours. The sound world of the Eighth, much more relaxed, divertimento-like almost, is pervaded by its array of tuned percussion; the second movement features only the wind, the third just the strings.