SOMM Launches RWV 150 Recording Project

Cover of the album being discussed showing Malcolm Sargent (right) consulting with Ralph Vaughan Williams during a rehearsal of the composer’s ninth symphony on March 9, 1958 (courtesy of Naxos of America)

Readers may recall that, this past February, SOMM Recordings released an album entitled William Walton: A Centenary Celebration, which had nothing to do with the dates of either Walton’s birth or his death. One week from today SOMM will launch a series or recordings that celebrate a composer’s anniversary. RWV 150 will involve multiple recordings in recognition of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1872, this being the year of the 150th anniversary of that birth.

Vaughan Williams is yet another composer that wrote nine symphonies. Sadly, he would die four months after the last of those symphonies was given its first performance. It was composed in the key of E minor, which was also the key of his sixth symphony. Taken together, they are the darkest of the Vaughan Williams symphonies; and they fill most of the first RWV 150 CD, which will be released one week from today. Fortunately, the album has an upbeat beginning with the overture composed for a performance of Aristophanes’ play The Wasps. As usual, Amazon.com is processing pre-orders for this new recording.

The recording of the ninth symphony is the most historically significant, since it captured the premiere performance, which took place the the Royal Festival Hall in London on April 2, 1958. On that occasion Malcolm Sargent conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The other two selections on the album were recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. On both of those occasions, Sargent conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The earlier of these was the performance of the Wasps overture on September 12, 1957. The sixth symphony performance was recorded much later, on August 4, 1964.

All of these recordings would not have been suitable for listening were it not for the assiduous efforts of audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr, whose remastering talents figured significantly in the release of historical recordings of the music of Edward Elgar. Spahr is clearly a leading individual in the community of those committed to restoring recordings of historical significance. Many readers probably know by now the extent to which SOMM Recordings has benefitted from his talents and how I have then benefitted from listening to those releases. Vaughan Williams was already beginning to go out of fashion when his ninth symphony received it first performance, and I am looking forward to Spahr’s efforts with SOMM to revive interest in the composer’s achievements.