14 October 2018

The First Recording of Vaughan Williams' Pastoral Symphony

This post is of no significance other than I occasionally like to transfer some of my favorite compositions.

This is the first recording of what I believe to be one of Ralph Vaughan Williams' greatest works, although it is lightly regarded among his symphonies.

It is perhaps unfortunately titled A Pastoral Symphony, which consigns it to what has derisively called the "cow-pat" school of music. At the time it was written, and even at the time of this recording in 1952, it was presumed to be an elegy for the English countryside. In later years, it has been understood instead as a reflection on the composer's time in France as an ambulance driver during World War I.
Vaughan Williams in France
It's of course possible that Vaughan Williams intended the work to be both a meditation on the landscape he knew in England and on the scarred terrain of war-torn France - where so many men were interred. As a corpsman, Vaughan Williams was confronted by death constantly. His response was to produce a symphony of remarkable beauty, heartbreaking and elegiac. Among its effects are a solo bugle, whose sound he would have heard each evening in France, and also at the military funerals he attended; and a wordless soprano solo, perhaps an angel's voice comforting the souls of the dead and welcoming them to a better world.

Or so I imagine. The work does not really have any stated programmatic aim, and can be enjoyed simply as an extraordinary piece of music.

Adrian Boult, Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams
The recording could not have a better provenance. It is conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, who led the first performance in 1922. The wordless soprano solo in the final movement is by Margaret Ritchie.

Margaret Ritchie
This album was part of Boult's first recorded cycle of the composer's symphonies, all of which were supervised by Vaughan Williams himself. The sessions were in Kingsway Hall, the most famous venue of the time, with producer John Culshaw and engineer Kenneth Wilkinson.

The download includes the contemporary Gramophone review, together with an advertising insert for the Decca cycle of symphonies, which includes production photos, including the one above. These were among Decca's 1953 offerings in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. 

I transferred the first two movements from an English Decca pressing (cover above) and the final two from the London pressing made for export to the US (cover below). [Note (June 2023): This transfer has now been enhanced with ambient stereo processing.]




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36 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 October, 2018 19:34

    My first one, too! Most appreciated, Buster. I think that many of the Deccas in this fifties' cycle are better than Boult's stereo EMI remakes.

    I have a request: the WESTMINSTER issue of the Vaughan Williams Wasps incidental music and Old King Cole Suite, cond. by Boult. It is quite a bit different than the Decca versions, which have more distant sound. I purchased a CDR copy from an oboist named L. R., and it ROTTED and will no longer initialize on any CD drive--I think this is likely a problem caused by the gummed disk label (it also happened to several other purveyors of CDR reissues and I soon learned to make an archival copy--but missed doing one for the RVW issue; drat!)

    I *do* have two separate CD reissues (official Decca) of the Boult performances of these piece; I only want the WESTMINSTER.

    Best,
    8H Haggis

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buster14 October, 2018 20:08

      8H - Not sure, but I will look for you.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14 October, 2018 22:24

      Thanks.

      Here are two very rare Westminster LPs by Sir Adrian Boult that might complement Buster's excellent upload of the Decca recording of RVW Third Symphony. I know for sure that I did the second transfer from a mint copy of the Walton that I purchased about 15 years ago, and if memory serves, I also did the first transfer from a second-hand copy of the Bartok obtained even earlier.

      1. Boult conducts Bartok; "Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra of London" (Westminster's pseudonym for the Royal Philharmonic, then under contract to EMI.) Divertimento for Strings; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. Rec. c.1954, Westminster XWN 18237.

      2. Boult conducts Walton: Belhazzar's Feast. Same orch. as above, plus Baritone Dennis Noble; London Philharmonic Choir, Chorus Master Frederick Jackson; orch. leader Joseph Shadwick. Rec. c.1954, Westminster WL 5248, XWN 18253.

      https://www35.zippyshare.com/d/J3fXL9L2/39632/Boult%20Conducts%20Bartok%20%26%20Walton-WestminsterLPs.zip

      --or--

      https://www35.zippyshare.com/v/J3fXL9L2/file.html

      (72 MB zipped folder, MP3 format files + cover scans; file available ONLY for thirty days commencing 10/14/18; then it will be deleted.)

      8H Haggis

      Delete
    3. Buster14 October, 2018 22:28

      8H - The irony is, I am fairly sure I have both of these Boult records, but I could not find the Westminster Old King Cole, etc. I even looked through my CDs and digital files. Sorry!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14 October, 2018 22:30

      Incidentally, there were several different couplings of these works; one of them had only the Wasps *overture* plus all of Old King Cole (I have that one), plus English Folksong Suite and Norfolk Rhapsody; the other one (the issue that ROTTED and is now unplayable) was a W-LAB that had only the *complete* Wasps suite (ov & several selections), plus Old King Cole. The "March Past Of The Kitchen Utensils" makes an unholy WHAM on the W-Lab (even the 'normal' Westminster XWN) but the Decca version, done about a year earlier, is much, much tamer. That is what I'd dearly love to have again in my library!
      8H Haggis

      Delete
    5. Jerry15 October, 2018 12:23

      Re: VW Old King Cole and Wasps. I also long treasured the Westminster issue. But a detailed Boult discography by Philip Stuart offered by CRQ claims that the Westminster-Nixa and Decca Old King Cole are the same (issued by both companies via cross-license). Only the Wasps suites are different between Westminster-Nixa and Decca LPs. The Decca has been released on CD, but not the Westminster (to the best of my knowledge).

      Delete
    6. Buster15 October, 2018 13:22

      Thanks for the info, Jerry.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15 October, 2018 23:06

      I think I'd tend to believe that the Old King Cole is the same...but the Wasps suite has such TOTALLY different sound balance, and such a different dynamic range and acoustic, that the performances HAVE to be different. I am not completely certain about OKC until I compare the two forensically however. Back in the mid-fifties equalizing and compression was not as sophisticated; nor were there any digital echo-chamber devices. So altering these characteristics were difficult--and crude. We can tell now, after decades of studio experience with such technology. Actually, I can hear a difference between various Decca and Decca-licensed issues of OKC by Boult; the first one I got (Ace of Clubs, I believe) was HEAVILY limited and sounded worse than the later Belart and Decca CD releases. So, even there, specific issues/pressings did not sound identical. In the case of the Wasps, the acoustic is very intimate in the Westminster W-Lab and the bass impact is much greater. It was not Decca's typical tactic in those days to add echo and heavily reprocess tho' this did happen by the time fake stereo appeared on Ace of Clubs. The whole issue is fraught with problems and subjectivities...
      8H Haggis

      Delete
    8. Anonymous30 October, 2018 11:06

      After a great deal of searching, I believe I've found what I was looking for, as mentioned above.

      Plus, here are also some fixes of the 'random' blog (which I shall henceforth refer to as the "Blown Tweeter Blog") upload of an old Westminster LP by Sir Adrian Boult and the so-called "Philharmonic-Promenade Orchestra of London" (RPO) in the English Folksong Suite, Greensleeves Fantasia, Norfolk Rhapsody, and Tallis Fantasia, which (after editing) I've encoded as FLACs.

      On one of those infamous Russian blogs, I've located what is OSTENSIBLY the Westminster version of RVW's Suite "Wasps", which I referred to above. I *believe* it is, for the most part at least, the real Westminster release of the mid-fifties rather than the Decca issue of c.1953: the timings of the Overture performances are different, as are the March Past of the Utensils and the Finale. Frankly, the March does not sound as powerful as in the original W-Lab issue; and this transfer of the last movement is more than a bit gritty; most of the rest of the tracks are cleaner.

      I have retrieved the original covers from Discogs, with track info. Files are FLACs in the first disk, and mp3s in the second Lp. Folder is a 169 MB zip file.

      Theoretically, Zippyshare will delete this in thirty days after my upload on 10/30/2018; but as some have noted (confirmed by my testing) this is not exactly the case, depending on how often it continues to be downloaded; but don't count on it existing FOREVER.

      https://www74.zippyshare.com/d/VwVoKWLu/19446/RVWBoultMonoWest.zip

      -or-

      https://www74.zippyshare.com/v/VwVoKWLu/file.html

      8H Haggis

      Delete
  2. coppinsuk15 October, 2018 05:33

    Hi Buster,

    Always a joy to receive your communications - consistently fascinating, original and informative - I always learn something that I didn't know before.

    And now with contributions from "8H"!

    Does "8H" have a website/blog?

    Many, many thanks.

    Cheers,

    Douglas (UK)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buster15 October, 2018 11:40

      Thanks, Douglas - I appreciate your many comments. Our friend 8H is a man of mystery; I will need to let him answer your question.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15 October, 2018 23:13

      My current website is almost ENTIRELY about amateur astronomy; I used to have one about CM and audio--but was drummed out of the corps, with my sword snapped in two and my epaulets torn from my shoulders on RMCR and a few other ngs; so I retired from the fray. I decided that it was IMPOSSIBLE to discuss CM or audio in an interactive forum--and this was back in the end of the nineties; it's ten times worse now. I could not FATHOM how people who claimed to admire Schubert or Verdi or Mahler or Bruckner or Beethoven could POSSIBLY be so intolerant and vicious! It was impossible to post any intelligent comment, observation, or opinion without provoking someone's wrath and lifelong enmity. I realized that after making more than 5,000 posts to usenet that if I continued, I'd start to HATE music and HATE humanity.

      The astro stuff does not provoke more than the mildest demurs from a handful of wackos; you see, they pretend to be "scientific" and "objective" and refrain from going off the deep end into psychotic babble. I have my detactors in the amateur astro community, but it's all quite low-key.

      https://tinyurl.com/waldee-wormhole

      --or--

      https://filedn.com/lgyQ0Uu5laX4REarxi2Tv9B/index.html

      This will change in a few months when my contract with the (lousy, unreliable) server company expires.

      8HH/srw

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15 October, 2018 23:36

      Douglas, Buster, et al. --
      Thanks for the supportive remarks. No good deed goes unpunished; ergo I offer you my reworking of a great, unsung, and now unknown Boult performance: the c.1961 Somerset-Stereo/Fidelity Lp record of the Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony. It is recorded in stereo with pretty sumptuous quality for the time period, considering the grocery-store record provenance. I think it's an outstanding performance; very grave; very professional--while eschewing the passion of, say, Mravinsky, Koussevitzky, or Toscanini (in a good way.) I found this on YT and the miscreant who uploaded it REVERSED the audio channels. I corrected that and did a mile amount of processing to reduce the hum and rumble. The sound balances between L and R channel often drift about from side to side (possibly due to dynamic range limitations and manual gain-riding to prevent overloads) and from time to time the pitch is not PERFECTLY stead. Still, I was gob-smacked at the end result, finding it hard to believe that Herr D. L. Miller and his merry band of cheaptone engineers could pull this off. Why David Gideon at ReDiscovery has not mined this rich ore vein is a mystery to me (maybe he should DL my reworking; work it over AGAIN to his own taste, and do so!)

      192 MB FLACs, plus a slightly-altered (by me) cover picture; lossless encoded editing but original on YT was via mp3. As usual, ZS will delete this file in 30 days after the upload date of 10/15/18.

      https://www90.zippyshare.com/d/3bNG5YOE/11134/Tchaikovsky%20Symphony%20No.%206%20Pathetique%20-%20LPO%2c%20Boult%20-%20ch%20fixed%20%5bSomerset%20Lp%5d.zip

      --or--

      https://www90.zippyshare.com/v/3bNG5YOE/file.html

      8H Haggis

      Delete
    4. Andrew16 October, 2018 07:40

      Thank you 8H Haggis. All Boult recordings are gratefully received.

      Delete
    5. Buster16 October, 2018 18:42

      Thanks, 8H - I do believe I have this one, in common with most or all of the Boult/Miller recordings. I thought I had offered one of them here, but I guess not. I'll see if I can locate the Pathetique.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16 October, 2018 19:20

      I also have what was uploaded to a Russian blog as the Boult Somerset/Stereo-Fidelity record of the PIT 5th...but it sounds to me as if it is IMPOSSIBLE to be from a disk source. I wonder if somewhere in the world, there was once a CD issue. The sound is nearly identical to the Somerset/Stereo-Fidelity LP of the Pathetique, and the performance is JUST as good. But I don't trust that blog--they once ripped off an American collector who uploaded the Krips/NYP Bruckner 8th of the sixties, and called it a performance by Albert Coates! So I demurred in sending the 5th. However, I have it on good authority, from a friend who once had the Boult PIT 6th in a Musical Heritage release, that the one, above, IS indeed Boult's own recording.
      8H Haggis

      Delete
    7. Anonymous24 November, 2018 22:54

      Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony - Sir Adrian Boult, LPO (Somerset Stereo) ???

      I originally doubted that this "too good to be true" download of the ALLEGED Boult PIT 5, which I found on a notorious Russian blog that has FAKED albums misattributed to famous artists, could possibly be authentic.

      I've had second thoughts, after listening again to the corroborated Boult PIT 6th. I believe this COULD indeed be as it is claimed; it was accompanied by a cleaned up scan of the front cover of the Somerset/US mono cover but the format is indeed in rich true stereo.

      I don't think it's an LP-rip. The original tape from c.1959 was licensed to several other companies, including Pye in the UK, Gramusic in Spain, and Audio Spectrum in the US, and continued to be in print, one way or another, for nearly a decade. I cannot find an authentic CD issue but this SOUNDS like it could be one: it's surely NOT the usual run-of-the-mill amateur LP rip. First: these budget labels just did not sound THIS CLEAN; and second, there is no trace of end-of-side distortion or obvious harsh "congesting" peak limiting, always present on LPs of this era. So, maybe *somebody* had a tape issue, or even a COPY of the licensing tape supplied to an LP distributor.

      The other possibility is that it's a fake, in the same manner as Barrington-Coupe's spurious Joyce Hatto performances. The Boult Sixth is in this same no-nonsense manner, with extremely clean playing, recorded in about the same kind of spacious acoustic. I leave it to readers to ponder, and make up their own minds. I am not *100 percent* convinced, but now contend that IT MIGHT BE as advertised.

      {59 MB, mp3s, Somerset cover, track info; LIMITED TIME OFFERING, which will *probably* be discontinued by ZS after 12/24/18.}

      https://www110.zippyshare.com/d/OR5tztcb/32610/PIT%20Sym%205%20LPO%2c%20Boult.zip

      -or-

      https://www110.zippyshare.com/v/OR5tztcb/file.html

      8H Haggis

      Delete
    8. Anonymous25 November, 2018 00:43

      Meanwhile, as you try to validate the Boult PIT 5, above...

      Here's an authentic copy, complete with the Columbia Entre early LP cover, of the second recording made by Kletzki with the Philharmonia Orchestra, in 1946, of the PIT 5th. I find this to be an incredibly fine performance, equal in quality to his later Manfred or his Mahler First. I got this from YouTube and did some extensive NR and editing to clean up a few spots, and remove some small amount of LF rumble, below the musical signals. The "selfless" quality of musical honesty here reminds me indeed of Boult, or Ansermet, or Krips: other contemporaries of Kletzki.

      I took my edited version and converted it to both lossless mono FLAC, and hi res mp3; couldn't hear ANY significant difference--so to save data, here's the latter:

      {101 MB, mp3, with Entre label image; LIMITED TIME AVAILABILITY, as ZS *may not* retain this file after about 12/24/18.}

      https://www39.zippyshare.com/d/OrmHZEdD/23333/Tchaikovsky-%20Symphony%20no.5-%20Philharmonia%20Kletzki-1946.mp3

      -or-

      https://www39.zippyshare.com/v/OrmHZEdD/file.html

      8H Haggis

      Delete
    9. Buster27 November, 2018 19:25

      I found the Boult Pathetique, but no luck with the 5th.

      Delete
  3. Andrew15 October, 2018 07:50

    Oh but it is of great significance Buster! I can never decide if this is my favourite RVW symphony or not, but I play it often, and this is an authoritative performance. Quite by chance (or possibly not?) this

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000r30

    was broadcast yesterday. I don't know if you or any non-UK-based readers have the opportunity to hear it by some clever means, but it is worth hearing; it knocks the "cowpat" jibe into the bin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buster15 October, 2018 11:50

      Hi Andrew - Thanks so much! It is by chance that Radio 3 broadcast that program, which interests me greatly. I gave up long ago trying to figure the intricacies of the iPlayer. For those interested in the US, you can stream this particular program, but not download it, although presumably you can do the latter in the UK. If I had more patience, I would set up software to record the stream or try to access the download through a UK proxy server. I think I'll just stream it!

      Delete
    2. Andrew16 October, 2018 07:34

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Andrew16 October, 2018 07:39

      Buster, if you had the patience a program called "GetIplayer" is available for Ubuntu, but you may not think it worth the effort for a 30 minute radio programme. I have an m4a download, but I have no idea how to send it to anybody. I am lacking in techie skills.

      Delete
    4. Buster16 October, 2018 18:37

      Hi Andrew - I listened to it online, thanks to you. I do have a way of capturing it, but too indolent to implement.

      Delete
    5. dgrb18 October, 2018 13:26

      I attended a performance of the Pastoral performed by our local youth orchestra just last year.

      It was deeply moving. If anyone cares you can read my review here: http://islandnet.com/miv/reviews/r2017-11-12-dgrb.html

      Delete
    6. dgrb18 October, 2018 13:28

      To Andrew: get_iplayer is actually cross-platform and available for linux, the mac and windows.

      If you have a VPN which will masquerade as being in the UK you can use it to download tv programmes as well...

      Delete
    7. Buster18 October, 2018 13:58

      Thank you, Deryk - I enjoyed reading your thoughts, particularly your mention of the "marvellously subtle orchestration, which somehow never quite comes across on record" - so true.

      Delete
  4. Scoredaddy15 October, 2018 18:20

    thank you, Buster!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. centuri16 October, 2018 01:44

    Many thanks to you all for these treasures.
    Boult is a refined and excellent conductor, supporting a huge repertoire.
    Among others, his Bartok is fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
  6. thornyone16 October, 2018 09:21

    just my two pence worth what version is this
    https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=9.80377

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16 October, 2018 18:56

      I haven't checked the timings, but I *believe* this is likely the same Westminster record I referred to above. In fact, the same person -- oboist L. S. -- did the transfer (no doubt the same one he originally sold privately) as he folded his operation and made some kind of association with Klaus Heyman of Naxos, reissuing the items he had previously sold privately. His transfers are quite good; but his earlier private issues often "rotted" (as I can attest, because EVERY ONE I purchased from him failed.) I would not hesitate to purchase them as I found them to be of professional quality.
      8H Haggis

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16 October, 2018 19:15

      Yes, the timings of the Decca recording of Wasps (Belart transfer) differ completely (with the exception of the Overture) from the Naxos timings (presumably the Westminster), in come cases deviating by more than 1 minute. For example, the March Past of the Kitchen Utensils lasts 2:50 in the Naxos transfer, but only 1:47 in the Decca/Belart. The Entracte is 4:37 in the Decca/Belart, but 3:37 in the Naxos; and the last movement is about 20 seconds longer in the Decca than the Naxos. I am not able to do a forensic A-B comparison between the Westminster Wasps overture and the Decca; both have a playing time of exactly 10:05...hmmm! Could it be that the only difference is in the short pieces on Westminster compared to Decca?

      For those not familiar with the colloquial term "CD rot": this is a condition where a recordable CD (a CDR) becomes unplayable over time, due to a number of factors. I've found that gummed labels on the reverse side often contribute; or even writing on that side with a permanent marker. In other cases, the plastic substrate seems to go opaque, or change color. My tests show that CDR's rot FASTER if they are recorded at high speeds (i. e. 24-32x) than slow speeds; so I use ONLY 2x speed, despite the tedium. I must have prepared (in professional as well as amateur activities) more than 10,000 CDRs for various projects, and now *always* make at least two personal copies of any valuable recording I keep on CDR--and also keep the digital files (as FLACs) on a hard drive or thumb drive: so, I have THREE copies of them. The brand/quality of disk seems to have little correlation; I've had expensive Kodak and Sony disks "rot"--and cheapie, no name disks remain perfect for 15 years...go figure.

      One gentleman of my acquaintance, who for some years sold CM on CDRs, wrote info ONLY in the transparent space right next to the center hole, referring to a disk release number--he said that this was the safest thing to do. He also eschewed big CD gummed labels.
      8H Haggis

      Delete
  7. thornyone17 October, 2018 01:18

    and another thing on the decca issue the middle section is missing on March Past of the Kitchen Utensils

    ReplyDelete
  8. Buster30 June, 2023 16:23

    Ambient stereo version, Apple lossless format:

    https://mega.nz/file/yRFymaAJ#qcCLXe_lXGPiSfYmILj5-lpjdHchEvj4xtZ_4QyXQEA

    ReplyDelete

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