Terry Blain enjoys the confident performances and rich colours in these Vaughan Williams recordings
ORCHESTRAL CHOICE
Vaughan Williams
Job – A Masque for Dancing; Old King Cole; The Running Set
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/ Andrew Manze
Onyx ONYX 4240 75:32 mins
Vaughan Williams’s ‘masque for dancing’, Job, though rarely seen on a theatre stage, has been fortunate on record, with excellent recordings by Adrian Boult, Vernon Handley, Andrew Davis and Mark Elder to choose from. Following his highly successful cycle of VW symphonies with the RLPO, Andrew Manze now adds another.
Trepidation stalks Manze’s Job from the outset, the ostensibly pastoral opening shaded by an undertow of dark foreboding. The RLPO’s playing bristles with malevolent intent in ‘Satan’s Dance of Triumph’, and the ‘great wind’ which strikes Job’s sons dead in Scene 3 is spearheaded by implacably weighty contributions from the brass section.
There’s more impressively articulate playing in ‘Job’s Dream’, where Manze stirs disquieted visions while keeping a pleasingly tight grip on rhythm and dynamics. The massive climax as Satan appears, seated on God’s throne, is resplendently captured by the Andrew Keener-produced recording. All told, this is a Job rich in colour and atmosphere, projected with stirring confidence and understanding by the Liverpool players.
Old King Cole, written seven years earlier than Job, likewise sought to pioneer a new dance form based on English folk steps, not the en pointe manoeuvres of classical ballet. VW’s witty, ebullient score is embraced with gusto by the RLPO, with Eva Thorarinsdottir the characterful violin soloist. A vivacious rendition of The Running Set, another of VW’s essays in folk dance, closes out this latest, richly nourishing instalment in Manze’s series.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
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Bruckner
Symphony No. 7
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/ Lahav Shani
Warner Classics 5419761966 63:06 mins
On the basis of this impressive live recording, conductor Lahav Shani’s five-year tenure at the helm of the Rotterdam Philharmonic seems to be reaping considerable artistic dividends. The Dutch orchestra may not possess that glorious Central European warmth of string tone you get from hearing either the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonic in this music. Nonetheless, the string playing is both subtle (with some beautifully
