Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5 and Serenade to Music

Ralph Vaughan Williams' middle symphonies can be neatly separated into the visionary 3rd and 5th and the anguished 4th and 6th. Many conductors prefer the latter variety: the 4th has inspired 32 recordings; the elegiac Symphony No. 3 half that number.

That said, the mystical Symphony No. 5 has reached an avid audience since its wartime premiere. Recorded 34 times, it has been more popular than the apocalyptic Symphony No. 6, with its 25 recordings.

My own preference is for the composer's spiritual side as expressed in the third and fifth symphonies (and many other works).

The Symphony No. 3 (or "Pastoral Symphony" as it is often called) appeared here in its first recording, led by Sir Adrian Boult in 1953. Today we add Boult's 1969 recording of the Symphony No. 5, which has an exceptional discmate - the second recording of Vaughan Williams' setting of the Serenade to Music from Shakespeare utilizing 16 soloists, as did the first performance and recording led by Sir Henry J. Wood.

Symphony No. 5

The fifth symphony shares themes with one of the composer's greatest works, a staged version of The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan's 1678 religious allegory. The latter work was not completed until 1951, even though Vaughan Williams had prepared one scene from it as early as 1921, which was mounted as The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains.

During 1938-43, however, the composer had all but abandoned activity in connection with The Pilgrim's Progress, and began using some of its musical materials for his fifth symphony. Perhaps for this reason the struggles of the Pilgrim at times can be detected just below the surface of the fifth symphony's radiant musical surface.

It is indeed an extraordinarily beautiful piece of music that, despite the Bunyan connection, has no programmatic theme. That said, its warm reception in the depth of the war was surely inspired in part by the sense that the symphony is a great and noble journey similar to that of the Pilgrim and the English people during wartime.

Boult in the studio

This recording was the second led by Sir Adrian, 16 years after his Decca effort with the same orchestra, the London Philharmonic. The performance is well controlled; while not severe, it also is not overtly emotional. The music's striking beauty and eloquence are in full display.

Henry Wood was to have led the first performance in 1943, but fell ill, so the composer conducted. John Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra were responsible for the initial recording, in 1944.

Although Vaughan Williams completed The Pilgrim's Progress in 1951, it was not recorded until 1970-71, again with Boult in charge. However, Argo issued seven songs from the score with piano accompaniment in 1953, with John Cameron as the Pilgrim. These songs appeared here many years ago, and are still available.

Serenade to Music

Sir Adrian Boult, producer Christopher Bishop, Sheila Armstrong, John Carol Case

The Serenade to Music, with a text adapted from a passage in The Merchant of Venice, is one of Vaughan Williams' most beautiful and best-loved compositions. He wrote the work for Henry Wood to mark the 50th anniversary of Wood's first conducting engagement. In the score, Vaughan Williams indicated solo passages for 16 leading vocalists of the day. Sir Henry led the first performance on October 5, 1938, and he and the singers recorded the work with the BBC Symphony 10 days later. That recording is available on my other blog, along with five Vaughan Williams songs as performed by three of the Serenade to Music vocalists - Astra Desmond, Roy Henderson and Heddle Nash.

Vaughan Williams later arranged the work for four soloists, choir and orchestra, and a variety of other performing forces. There have been four commercial recordings of the original version; Boult's 1969 performance was the second, althougha live 1951 recording with the composer conducting also has surfaced. 

Boult's soloists included some of the best-regarded English vocalists of the time. The performers were: 

• Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong, Susan Longfield, Marie Hayward (sopranos)
• Alfreda Hodgson, Gloria Jennings, Shirley Minty, Meriel Dickinson (contraltos)
• Ian Partridge, Bernard Dickerson, Wynford Evans, Kenneth Bowen (tenors)
• John Carol Case, John Noble (baritones)
• Richard Angas, Christopher Keyte (basses)

The download includes Shakespeare's text with a key as to who is singing what.

The photo above may be from the Serenade to Music session - or one of the 1970-71 Pilgrim's Progress dates, also led by Boult with Sheila Armstrong and John Carol Case among the vocalists, and the same producer, Christopher Bishop.

The download includes the usual cover scans, plus photos and reviews from The Gramophone, High Fidelity and Stereo Review.

The ad below proclaims that "the sound is magnificent, with unequalled internal balance which characterises Sir Adrian's work." This is not hyperbole: I transferred this record on request for its sound quality, which, I am told, is superior to the latter-day digital reissues. It comes from a UK pressing; as usual at the time, the sound on the English issue was and is superior to the American Angel release.  

Detail from ad in The Gramophone, March 1970