Rhone Street Garden

CD REVIEW!

A Cotswold Romance

Well, as my first-ever music review I could hardly start with a cd that surprised me as much as this one. Let me just admit I’ve become enamoured with Ralph Vaughan Williams over the past few years. My first RVW recording was of his Fantasia on Greensleeves which was the sole RVW track on a Telarc cd I originally bought mainly for Pachelbel’s Canon. I thought it was pleasant (Greensleeves being one of my all-time favorite melodies I could hardly not like it), but wrote RVW off as a really good arranger and nothing more. Over the next (gulp) ten or so years I heard a few more pieces, most notable his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending. Although I really like all of them (especially the Tallis Fantasia) I never really looked any further. Then, after moving to Portland, I found the London Symphony (Symphony No. 2) and for some reason it all clicked. Afterwards I started seeking out as much of his music as I could find. I’ll admit, I bought the Cotswold cd mainly out of a sense of completionism…wanting to have as much of RVW’s music as I could. Also, I have yet to find a piece of his music I don’t at least enjoy a little. Boy was I surprised to discover this has to be one of my favorite RVW scores of all time! It’s hearty, melodic, bucolic, rousing, melancholy and romantic. I can honestly say it’s right up there (for me) with Sir John In Love.

Fave Tracks/Moments:

Hugh’s Song of the Road…upbeat and lushly beautiful at the same time. The chorus and soloist has great interplay in this track, passing the melody between them, a very dynamic track.

Love at First Sight…lush and romantic. Sweeping orchestration and background chorus back up soaring solos by tenor and soprano.

Alone and Friendless…beautiful and melancholy

Freedom at Last…soaring and amazing…a really great culmination to the opera, full of drama and beautiful melodies. Reinterates the main themes and merges them all together…truly beautiful. I especially love how the music fades out in the end, rather than a loud flourish.

The disc ends with the suite “Death of Tintangiles” which is nice, melancholy RVW music, great atmospheric pieces.