Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs
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Free Music Notes for Vaughan Williams: The Collector's Edition - 30 CDs
Free Music Review: A steal but..
Hit: 4 Stars
Having enjoyed the companion Elgar set, I bought this immediately when it came out. It is certainly extraordinary value for money, at less than $3 per disc. I am less taken with the content however. Many of the recordings are choral works which are less compelling to this listener than V-W's orchestral works. Moreover, the latter are just not that exciting when compared to other recordings that I already possess. The organization is also rather parsimonious, and short works--often interesting ones--are tucked away amongst very different tracks, making listening more active than I prefer. So, not actually a disappointment but its not dominating the CD player or replacing other versions in my collection. Kudos for the presentation however; the Elgar box is garish, while this is rather pleasing, although it does of course fall for the 'Shropshire lad' conceit that dogged the composer throughout his life.Free Music Review: Great value as an introduction
Hit: 4 Stars
If you don't know much of Vaughan Williams this is a great way to find out which pieces you like, but you may then want to move on to better recordings. Many of these have less than good sound quality;for example, some of the choral works sound mushy and indistinct.Free Music Review: Too cheaply done.
Hit: 3 Stars
I know people revere Boult and Handley and Hickox as the best of all possible interpreters for British music, along with Groves and Barbirolli and all of the other artists presented here. So please don't take offense as I pick apart this box set -- because it's not as great as some other reviewers make it out to be. Others can tell you why it's good (and it has LOTS of good stuff). Let me criticize it a little. Or a lot.
First, the packaging. I'm getting really tired of these box sets (Elgar on EMI, reissue of Stravinsky set on Sony, etc.) that are missing biographies or descriptions of the works outside of a track listing. Is it so hard to reprint the liner notes from the original releases? Why on earth do they not include a libretto?? I can barely understand a word of these choruses and unless you've heard Sir John in Love or Hugh the Drover before, I don't think you'll be able to figure a whole lot out without resorting to the Internet and digging pretty deeply. Like the Elgar set, about half of this set has vocal works. So it's a huge drawback not to have texts and librettos.
Second, these recordings are old. Fine. But they _sound_ old. I guess if EMI can't add liner notes, they won't spend the time to remaster their recordings before putting them back on the shelves. People who are replacing their vinyl recordings may be celebrating, but those of us who are young enough to have never owned vinyl or 8-track tapes will find that some of these recordings sound antiquated. This is especially true for those impossible-to-decipher vocal works. The songs are blurry and fuzzy (typical of low-end ADD), and there's nothing to be done without the help of a good sound engineer. It's clear much more care was put into the first half, which is full of the orchestral blockbusters that I'm sure have sold much better over time.
Third, EMI was so lazy that they just put the CDs in this set as they were released originally without any consideration of repetition. There are 3 different versions of the Serenade to Music (one for chorus, one for 16 singers, and one with orchetra) under 3 different conductors. It's a charming work, but not _that_ charming. The Piano Concerto in an orchestral version, and then in 2-piano form? Ugh, there's a reason why Vaughan Williams kept editing it -- it's about as dry and bland as overcooked turkey. Two versions of the Fantasia of the Christmas Carols? On my Scrooge days, one is too many.
I suppose the argument can be made that EMI has given choices, so you can pick the version you like best to put on your iPod. By why do that with such marginal works -- if they're going to have 2 versions of anything, it should be the symphonies. Handley's interpretations are five stars in my book -- they were good enough to convince me to sell my Slatkin set.
So, I guess it's a must-buy only because there's nothing more complete out there at such a low price. But lament the fact that it could have -- and should have! -- been so much better.
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