Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony (Symphony 1)
Paul Daniel, soloists, chorus, Bournemouth Symphony
Naxos 8.557059

4 stars

Just a Smidgen Below the Best

This new release competes most obviously with the recording issued
last year featuring the Atlanta Symphony under the direction of their
new music director, Robert Spano.  I found that recording to be a little
disappointing, and surprisingly that was at least partly because I found
the usually sterling sound from Telarc to be a bit over-bright and
hard-edged.  One cannot make that complaint about this new Naxos release,
but there are a few other quibbles about this otherwise fine recording.

The 'Sea Symphony,' Vaughan Williams's first, written just after he'd
returned from his few months studying with Ravel, was my first RVW
symphony back in the 1950s.  I knew it even before the most popular one,
the 'London' Symphony, No.  2.  My introduction was Sir Adrian Boult's
classic mono recording which many consider to be, even yet, the finest
ever made.  But that recording's sound, alas, shows its age.  [I dug out
my old LP just to give it another listen after a number of years.  It
is also out on a mid-priced CD on EMI and I believe it is still widely
available.  My old impression remains; it is a very fine performance.
I will admit that perhaps I like it because it was my first recording,
but apparently others feel the same about it.] Since the Boult there
have also been fine recordings by Previn, Slatkin and Hickox that I've
heard.  I like all three, and particularly like the choral sound of the
London Symphony Chorus in the Hickox recording.

Naxos has put out its own RVW symphony set with all but the 1st and 4th
conducted by Kees Bakels with the orchestra on this CD, the Bournemouth
Symphony, that recording-est of non-London British ensembles.  I have
not, truthfully, been taken with those recordings, although they are
solid enough and I did really like the one that included both the 5th
and 9th symphonies.  Perhaps we can hope that the 4th symphony, not yet
recorded by Naxos as far as I know, will be directed by the present
conductor, Paul Daniel, and this group.

This performance uses two superior vocal soloists.  Christopher Maltman
has a masculine baritone and impeccable diction.  His dramatic declamation
of Whitman's soaring text is exemplary.  The lesser role assigned to the
soprano, Joan Rodgers, is well-taken; she has the pure spinto sound
needed.

I am a bit less impressed with the singing of the Bournemouth Symphony
Chorus; perhaps it's because they don't sound particularly British--as,
for instance, the choruses on the Boult, Hickox and Previn recordings
do--and I miss that.

Paul Daniel is a rising star amongst British conductors.  I thought his
recording of the Elgar/Payne Third Symphony was a real triumph; I liked
it even more than the Andrew Davis/BBC Symphony world premiere recording.
And I loved his 'Elijah' with Bryn Terfel and Renee Fleming as well as
his recording of Walton's First Symphony and Partita.  He directs a
somewhat muted performance here.  He does not squeeze the last drop
of drama out of Whitman's exceedingly dramatic verse here, although he
really comes into his own in the lyrical second movement, 'On the Beach
At Night, Alone.' He directs the third movement, the Scherzo 'The Waves,'
with headlong abandon, but his chorus sounds like they are singing a bit
above their heads; admittedly, this is exceedingly difficult contrapuntal
music that would tax most choruses.  However, Boult's and Hickox's
choruses do it almost without breaking a sweat.

The final and longest movement (at 27 minutes), 'The Explorers,' is a
triumph. It is a loosely constructed and dramatically complicated piece
and Daniel leads his forces expertly.  Throughout the symphony RVW uses
sea shanty tunes and rhythms, and especially so in the culmination of
this last movement; Daniel conveys them without their becoming trite,
somewhat difficult considering that the subtext of this movement is the
journey of the soul towards a spiritual resting-place.

A worthwhile recording which is, as indicated in the above title line,
just a little below the best recordings of this monumental 65-minute
piece.

Scott Morrison
Review appears at amazon.com at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AQRYM/classicalnetA/