A Pastoral Sym/Sym

The critics really make it hard for those of us who love the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. It's bad enough that Aaron Copland once said that listening to Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5 was like staring at a cow for 45 minutes. It's even worse that Tim Page, music critic for the Washington Post, likened The Lark Ascending--my nomination for the most purely beautiful piece of music ever written--to a lovely but vapid woman you're embarrassed to remember you were once in love with. But the absolutely last straw has been broken: the author of a new, violently condemnatory biography of the late Anthony Burgess uses Burgess' choice of Vaughan Williams for his appearance on the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" as proof positive of the essential mediocrity of Burgess' mind.
OK, maybe I'm mediocre too (and I'd be perfectly happy to be as mediocre as Anthony Burgess!). But I STILL consider Vaughan Williams one of the most remarkable composers of the 20th century, and certainly one of the most consistently delightful. His Third (Pastoral) and Fifth Symphonies have a soulful richness and luminosity few 20th-century works can match, and it's hard to imagine finer or more idiomatic versions of them than those conducted by the late Sir Adrian Boult. Particularly at its mid-level price, this CD is a must for anyone interested in English music.

These are two qualities melted one into another that outline symphony 3 "Pastoral" and 5. The scope is musically generous, rich, while maintaining the substance of everything this composer did. The conducting , as does the playing, is matched or surpassed only by a few peers. Two great pieces with solemn melodies, with dark/light stamina, a disquietude longing for pastoral respite.

The Third and Fifth symphonies of Vaughan Williams are among his most peaceful and serene of his works. I once heard a commentator on public radio say that he listened to the Fifth symphony before boarding a plane. If the unthinkable happened and the plane when down, he contended that he would be better prepared to accept his death have reached so serene a state. The Fifth was written when Vaughan Williams was in his early 70ï¿s, and the mood of reflection and peace associated with the music made may think the composer had entered a state of restful reflection. They did not dream that he would write four more symphonies that would prove Vaughan Williams had more fire in him than suspected.

The Third symphony (Pastoral) also has a similar feeling of reflection. It is odd that it was written in France during the First World War while Vaughan Williams was in the ambulance corps. I think of it as hearkening back to a time before the war when the French countryside, now blasted by shells, was a peaceful place.

These recordings are among the best conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, and although they date from the early 1950s they have been so beautifully remastered that it will not matter they are not digital recordings. The subtle orchestral shadings in both symphonies are magical and have rarely been caught so precisely. A must for those interested in Vaughan Williamsï¿s music.