Mimi mooning over VW (who's well worth moving over)

>Harvard Radio (they are online and streaming at www.whrb.org) is doing
>a chronological survey of Vaughan Williams.  This program got a late
>start, so they are only up to 1925 if you are following their online
>program guide.
>
>I just heard for the first time, the violin concerto in d minor, Concerto
>Academico, conducted by Previn and played beautifully by James Buswell.
>
>When I checked to see if it was available on cd, I found a six cd set
>at a budget price! Hey, that's for me.  It includes ALL the symphonies
>(so what if I have duplicates?), Tuba Concerto--also new to me!, the
>much-loved Overture to "The Wasps" and "Elizabeth in England" which I
>have never heard before.

All from the Previn set of VW symphonies on RCA.  The Previns are good
performances, but they're not the last word on all the works.  The best
is the Seventh.  But if you're into VW symphonies big time, you'll want
to look into Boult's two sets (one stereo and one mono), Handley's set,
the individual performance of Barbirolli, and many more.  I wrote an
annotated discography on the English Symphony, including, of course,
analysis of most of the VW symphony recordings for ARG.  It's available
on line through the Minuteman Library Network Infotrac service.

>I had a professor of music history once who went on and on about how in
>order to appreciate Vaughan Williams you had to be British, and you have
>to had worshiped in a stone church.  Nonsense!!!

Is it ever.

>Vaughan Williams speaks directly to me, a granny from Philly.
>Ever since I first heard him, I've been a fan.
>
>Oooo.  Now they are about to do "Six Studies in English Folksong" for
>chambergroup.  <pleased sigh>.

I played that on trombone once.

Roger Hecht