SOMM Continues RWV 150 Recording Project

Adrian Boult (left) discussing score details with Ralph Vaughan Williams (right) and Ursula Vaughan Williams (center) (courtesy of Naxos of America)

Readers may recall that, near the end of this past July, SOMM Recordings launched a project to release a series of albums in recognition of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1872, this being the year of the 150th anniversary of that birth. A little over two weeks ago, the second volume in this project was released. The first volume involved Vaughan Williams working with Malcom Sargent in preparing three concerts, two involving the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and one with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

The second volume shifts attention to Vaughan Williams working with Adrian Boult. This amounts to an “international” album, since Boult conducted “Job: A Masque for Dancing” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at their “home” in Symphony Hall. The other two selections on the album return to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, working this time with the ensemble’s Chorus. The more familiar of these is the “Serenade to Music,” which is preceded by “Thanksgiving for Victory.”

“Serenade to Music” is a setting of text from the opening scene of the final act of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The text itself amounts to a diversion from the play’s plot, shifting attention from “the quality of mercy” to the nature of music and the music of the spheres. Vaughan Williams set this text for sixteen vocal soloists and orchestra. He had sixteen individuals in mind, and their names were also specified in the score pages.

Once the work was given its premiere performance, the composer recognized that assembling sixteen soloists was no easy matter; so he made an arrangement for four soloists, choir, and orchestra. That is the version that Boult conducted for the BBC on September 29, 1946, which is included on this new release. The soloists are soprano Isobel Baillie, contralto Astra Desmond, tenor Beveridge White, and baritone Harold Williams. Given the many shortcomings of both recording technology and the radios available for listening to those recordings, “Serenade for Music” probably fared better in this arranged version that it would have done in the original. Similar difficulties in clarity of text are also encountered in the recording of “Thanksgiving for Victory,” composed to mark the end of World War II in Europe.

There is no doubt that Boult benefitted from working with Vaughan Williams, particularly in preparing performances of “Serenade to Music” (which was originally conducted by Henry Wood) and “Job.” However, about a decade after Vaughan Williams’ death, Boult set about to prepare an extensive series of recordings of the composer’s music, beginning with the full cycle of symphonies but also including both the “Serenade” and “Job.” By that time audio technology had improved significantly, and perhaps the same can be said of the skills set of the EMI recording crew.

In other words, while Boult must have benefitted from working directly with Vaughan Williams, he could draw upon “accumulated wisdom” when he prepared his EMI recordings. One can certainly appreciate that the SOMM recordings reflect, at least to some degree, the “immediate presence” of the composer. Personally, however, my preferences still come down on the “accumulated wisdom” side of the coin!