Vaughan Williams' Visionary 'Dona Nobis Pacem'

This post is the latest in a survey of the classic 1960s-70s HMV recordings of Ralph Vaughan Williams' compositions. Today the focus is his haunting Dona Nobis Pacem, a magnificent work from 1936, here in a committed 1973 performance led by Sir Adrian Boult, transferred from a vintage pressing.

In his High Fidelity review of the disc, Abram Chipman writes of the composer's spirit, which is reflected in this music. He called Vaughan Williams "uncommonly generous, courageous, tender, bluntly honest, compassionate, and radiating a life-affirming optimism that occurs on such a scale rarely in the tonal arts."

"One couldn’t find a more sterling example of that greatness of heart than in the major work on this new release."

Sir Adrian Boult

While bitterly denouncing the horrors of war - which the composer well knew first hand - Vaughan Williams also maintains hope for the future, as expressed in the texts he chose for the work, largely from Walt Whitman, but also from the Catholic Mass and the Bible.

Let me quote again from Chipman: "Vaughan Williams, in his 'give us peace' [i.e., dona nobis pacem] plea, stressed the humanity of war's victims above all else. Thus, the second movement (Beat! beat! drums!) represents the angry juggernaut of militarism tramping over the everyday life of people at their studies, at their love-making, at the plow, and caring for their children.

"The third movement is a visionary elegy for solo baritone, who whispers the poignant truth that 'my enemy ... a man divine as myself is dead.' The awesomely solemn fourth section is a Dirge for Two Veterans, father and son.

"The finale returns to the Biblical and sacred vision of sources of the opening, with a brilliantly festive vision of a better and more peaceful world. In Vaughan Williams' rapturous vision (composed contemporaneously with the Fourth Symphony), cynicism and despair are banished. There is indignation and pain, of course, but dominating all is a caressing warmth for the human life that might have been."

Sheila Armstrong and John Carol Case

The performance of this important work is all that it should be. Sir Adrian leads the London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra and has the great fortune to be working with two gifted soloists, soprano Sheila Armstrong, passionate and otherworldly at once in the opening Dona nobis pacem and the finale, and baritone John Carol Case, who presents the reconciliation elegy simply and eloquently.

Boult leads the Dirge for Two Veterans with great skill, the climaxes perfectly judged - as they are throughout this composition.

The recording from Kingsway Hall was considered to be a bit wooly on first release, but working from the original vinyl, the sound here is impressively live and impactful.

The LP is completed by Vaughan Williams' much earlier setting of Whitman's Toward the Unknown Region, which is well chosen for its compatibility with Dona Nobis Pacem, but is not in the composer's mature style. Its quality suffers only in comparison with the later work, however.

The download, as usual, includes complete scans, texts and reviews.

The link below is to the 16-bit, 44.1kHz version. A high resolution transfer is available upon request.

LINK to Dona Nobis Pacem and Toward the Unknown Region

The previous entries in this Vaughan Williams series have included:

• Five Tudor Portraits (Elizabeth Bainbridge, Jolhn Carol Case, conducted by David Willcocks)

• Riders to the Sea and Magnificat (Helen Watts, Margaret Price, conducted by Meredith Davies)

• An Oxford Elegy, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, Flos Campi (John Westbrook, Cecil Aronowitz, Willcocks conducting)

• Mass in G minor, Five Mystical Songs (King's College Choir, John Shirley-Quirk, Willcocks conducting)

• Sancta Civitas, Benedicite (Heather Harper, Ian Partridge, Shirley-Quirk, Willcocks conducting)

• Hodie (Janet Baker, Richard Lewis, Shirley-Quirk, Willcocks conducting)

• Serenade to Music (with Symphony No. 5) (16 soloists, Boult conducting)

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

Previn Conducts Britten's Spring Symphony

My recent upload of William Mathias' This World's Joie was surprisingly popular. Mathias had at least two inspirations - the Vaughan Williams choral works that have appeared in this series (notably Hodie and Sancta Civitas) and in particular Benjamin Britten's brilliant Spring Symphony from 1949.

Britten himself led the first commercial recording of the work in 1960, but today we have a transfer of André Previn's 1978 reading, beautifully performed and recorded. It has been a favorite of mine since it was issued. This transfer is from an original EMI Electrola pressing.

André Previn and Benjamin Britten in 1976

As with the other recordings in this series of choral works, this production offers some of the finest artists then active in Britain - soprano Sheila Armstrong, contralto Janet Baker and tenor Robert Tear. Previn conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the St. Clement Danes Boys' Choir.

The recording also is notable for its superb late-analogue sound, as derived from Kingsway Hall by producer Christopher Bishop and engineer Michael Sheady. To pick one example, I like the way the important tuba part is notably clear while remaining part of the ensemble. (Edward Greenfield in his Gramophone review identified the tuba player as John Fletcher, who is not credited.)

Front: Janet Baker, Sheila Armstrong, Robert Tear. Rear: Christopher Bishop, André Previn 

Britten called the work a symphony, but it actually is a song cycle with texts chosen primarily from the 13th to 19th century - "Sumer is icumen in" through to John Clare. The 20th century is represented by "Out in the lawn I lie in bed" from W.H. Auden's 1933 poem A Summer Night. The Auden piece, sung by Janet Baker, takes up the central portion of Britten's work, which points up its ominous reference to "Where Poland draws her Eastern bow," adding, "Now ask what doubtful act allows / Our freedom in this English house / Our picnics in the sun." Greenfield notes, "Both Previn and Baker are children of the inter-war years, Previn in Berlin very immediately so."

The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Kingsway Hall

But the majority of the work is notably sunny, appropriate to one celebrating spring. "Previn goes farther [than Britten] in realizing the dramatic-evocative aspects of the work, as shown in the pointing of instrumental witticisms and the unrestrained enjoyment of the open-end cadenza or bird sounds in 'Spring, the sweet spring'," writes Richard Freed in the Stereo Review. "The overall effect is one of mystic fantasy, evoked to a degree that Britten did not attempt in his own recording." It is this atmosphere that makes the Previn recording such a source of delight.

Britten's music has appeared several times on this blog - vintage recordings of his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and A Simple Symphony are newly remastered.

1979 Gramophone ad