Vaughan Williams / Previn / Lso - Syms 6 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Ensemble Marsyas' recording of Johann Fasch's finest chamber music demonstrates why the man and his music were so appreciated in his own lifetime. Founding member Peter Whelan and Inchthe queen of the recorderInch (BBC Radio 3) Pamela Thorby are the soloists challenged with meeting the virtuoso demands of this engaging music. The four-movement Quartet in B flat major for recorder, oboe, violin and continuo is among one of Fasch's most popular works; full of catchy tunes and contrapuntal ingenuity in equal measure, virtuosity is demanded from all concerned. The Concerto in F major for recorder and strings was only recently attributed to Fasch. It is full of characteristic Fasch-isms and of the same dramatic quasi-recitative style as his Bassoon Concerto. Upon Fasch Quartets and Concertos was named a Chamber Choice by BBC Music Magazine and awarded the maximum five stars for both Performance and Recording.

One of the leading English composers of his generation, Vaughan Williams was a pupil of Parry, Charles Wood and Stanford, and later of Bruch and Ravel. In his work as a composer he went some way towards creating a specifically English musical idiom, influenced by his interest in folk-song, but colored by his own personal vision and language. Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, the first of these A Sea Symphony, with words taken from Walt Whitman, the second InchA LondonInch Symphony and the third a InchPastoralInch Symphony. The Sixth Symphony, completed in it's first version in 1947, seemed to break new ground and was followed by a seventh, the Sinfonia Antartica.Compositions by Vaughan Williams for solo instrument and orchestra include the pastoral romance The Lark Ascending, for solo violin, and a Concerto accademico for solo violin and string orchestra. There is an attractive concerto for oboe and two more unusual concertos, one for harmonica and the other for bass tuba. Flos campi uses a solo viola and is scored also for a small choir and chamber orchestra. He made direct use of folk-song in his three Norfolk Rhapsodies, his Fantasia on Greensleeves, for solo flute, harp and strings and in his English Folksong Suite for military band, among other works. His Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for two string orchestras returns to the 16th century for it's musical inspiration.

Vaughan Williams / Boult / Lpo - Job/Scottish Dances (4)/Wasp O [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/25/1994