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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Nos. 3 "Pastoral" and 6 Bournemouth Orchestra Kees Bakels (1872 - 1958) Symphony No. 3 (Pastoral Symphony) Symphony No. 6 in E Minor

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in the Gloucestershire village of Down Ampney in 1872, the son of a clergyman. His ancestry on both his father's and mother's side was of some intellectual distinction. His father was descended from a family eminent in the law, while his maternal grandfather was a Wedgwood and his grandmother a Darwin. On the death of his father in 1875 the family moved to live with his mother's father at Leith Hill Place in Surrey. As a child Vaughan Williams learned the piano and the violin and received a conventional upper middle class education at Charterhouse, after which he delayed entry to Cambridge, preferring instead to study at the , where his teachers included and Walter Parratt, later Master of the Queen's Musick, both soon to be knighted. In 1892 he took up his place at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History, but took composition lessons from Charles Wood. After graduation in both Music and History, he returned to the Royal College, where he studied composition with Stanford, and, perhaps more important, became a friend of a fellow-student Gustav Holst. The friendship with Holst was to prove of great importance in frank exchanges of views on one another's compositions in the years following. In 1897 Vaughan Williams married and took the opportunity to visit Berlin, where he had lessons from Max Bruch and widened his musical experience. In England he turned his attention to the collection of folk-music in various regions of the country, an interest that materially influenced the shape of his musical language. In 1908 he went to Paris to take lessons, particularly in , from Ravel, and had by now begun to make a reputation for himself as a composer, not least with the first performance in 1910 of his first symphony, , setting words by , and his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis in the same year. The even tenor of his life was interrupted by the war, when he enlisted at once in the Royal Army Medical Corps. 1914 was also the year of and of his rhapsodic work for violin and orchestra, . Three years later, after service in Salonica that seemed to him ineffective, he took a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery and was posted to France, where he was also able to make some use of his abilities as a musician. After the war Vaughan Williams returned to the Royal College of Music, now as a professor of composition, a position he retained until 1938. In these years he came to occupy a commanding position in the musical life of the country, with a series of compositions that seemed essentially English, the apparent successor of Elgar, although his musical language was markedly different. The second war brought the challenge of composition for the cinema, with notable scores for The 49th Parallel in 1940 and a number of other films, culminating in 1949 in music for the film Scott of the Antarctic, the basis of his later Sinfonia Antarfica, the seventh of his nine symphonies. Other works of the last decade of his life included two more symphonies, the opera The Pilgrim's Progress, a violin sonata and concertos for harmonica and for , remarkable adventures for an octogenarian. He died in August 1958, four months after the first performance of his last symphony. Vaughan Williams wrote his Third Symphony, the aptly named Pastoral Symphony, in 1922, and revised the work in 1955. Conceived first in the countryside of Northern France towards the end of the war, the symphony has a certain sameness of mood throughout, an air of tranquillity that may be perceived in part as a celebration of the return of peace, described in the composer's own programme note on the first performance as "almost entirely quiet and contemplative". One hostile critic, however, satirised the work as "a cow looking over a gate", a verdict that does little justice to the subtlety and bold originality of conception of the music. The score includes a last movement vocalise for soprano or tenor, although the alternative use of a is happily suggested. Other variants are permitted, although the full score calls for three flutes, one doubling piccolo, two , , three , the third doubling , two , four horns, three trumpets and , tuba, a percussion section of , triangle, , and celesta, harp and strings. In addition to these instruments there are parts in the second movement for natural trumpet in E flat and for natural horn. The symphony breaks with tradition at once in its first movement, which unfolds in a generally meditative mood. A modal accompanimental figure from flutes, joined by clarinets, serves to introduce a theme heard first from cellos and double basses, with the harp. Thereafter thematic elements follow one another in material subtly related, making use of solo instruments and the telling effects of divided string parts, with violins, violas and cellos divided at times into four. The movement ends with a solo cor anglais over divided string chords and a final brief and muted reference to the first theme from cellos and basses. The first theme of the second movement is announced by a solo over a sustained string chord, the theme then handed, over changed harmonies, to and clarinet and then to solo viola and flute. The movement contains two cadenzas, the first for a natural trumpet and the second for natural horn, both with the characteristic intonation of the true harmonic series. The third movement, marked Moderato pesante, is a primordial dance, with its own rhythmic peculiarities, with which a second theme of folk contour, stated by the trumpet, offers a contrast. The movement ends with a curious coda, a Presto introduced imitatively by reduced numbers of strings with thematic material that again proclaims its national origin. The last movement is shaped by the opening solo, for voice or for clarinet, accompanied only by a soft roll of the drum. The modal thematic material that unfolds leads to the final re-appearance of the rhapsodic solo, now accompanied only by sustained notes from the muted violins at a height to which they have ascended in the bars immediately preceding, an inversion of the accompaniment of the opening of the movement. The Sixth Symphony of Vaughan Williams was written after the second World War. It was completed in 1946, when Michael Mullinar, to whom it was finally dedicated, played it through on the piano to the composer and a small group of friends. After revisions it was played through by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in December 1947 and first performed in public early in the following year. Some critics chose to describe the symphony as a War Symphony, its last movement seen by them as a prophecy of desolation. Vaughan Williams rejected this interpretation but went so far as to quote Prospero's farewell to his art in Shakespeare's The Tempest, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded by a sleep", with reference to the last movement. This was by no means his own farewell to music, whatever mood may have come upon him as he grew older. The symphony is scored for a large orchestra that includes a tenor saxophone, a xylophone and two harps, the second an optional doubling, in addition to a large woodwind and brass section, full percussion and strings. The first movement is in broadly traditional tripartite form. The first thematic material is developed in a transition that leads to the second, introduced by flute, cor anglais, first violin and viola. The movement ends with a recapitulation, with the second theme entrusted to the strings, accompanied by harp chords. The second movement, shifting from E major to B flat minor, is in ternary form, with its principal subject at first entrusted to unison strings, with clarinets and bassoons, over a sustained trumpet B flat. A drum-roll, starting softly but increasing in volume, leads to the central section of the movement, heralded by the brass, before the hushed entry of unison strings with a second theme. The third movement is a Scherzo with a Trio repeated after the varied repetition of the Scherzo itself. The first theme starts with a series of rising augmented fourths, ascending through the orchestra. The opening of the Trio is announced by the saxophone, over ostinato viola semiquavers. This theme is varied when it re-appears in the final section of the movement, with the full power of the whole orchestra. The Epilogue, a slow movement, starts with muted violins, over a note from the bass clarinet, sustained to link it with what went before. Muted brass introduce the second sect.ion of the movement with chords echoed by divided strings. A solo oboe starts a third section with a variant of the opening theme, while the final section, with its tremolo strings, serves as a brief summary. The last bars fade to nothing, as violins and violas sustain a final chord.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was founded on the 22nd May 1893 by Dan Godfrey, the son of a Victorian band-master. At first it was known as the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and provided music for one of the most prosperous resorts on the South coast of England. Godfrey served as principal conductor for the next forty years and established one of the most famous orchestras in Great Britain. Since then the orchestra has worked under a succession of distinguished Principal Conductors, the most recent being Sir Charles Groves, Constantin Silvestri, Paavo Berglund and Rudolf Barshai. In September 1988 the American conductor Andrew Litton was appointed to this role at the same time as Kees Bakels became the Principal Guest Conductor. In May 1993 the orchestra launched its centenary celebrations, during the year undertaking its first tour of the United States of America. The visit consolidated a touring history which has included Russia, Hong Kong, Spain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has recorded for a number of labels, and has highly acclaimed interpretations of the complete Tchaikovsky Symphonies in addition to the complete Symphonies of Vaughan Williams for Naxos. Kees Bakels Kees Bakels was born in Amsterdam, beginning his musical career as a violinist. He studied conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at the Ac.ademy Chigiana in Siena. During his studies he became Assistant Conductor of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently held the position of Associate Conductor with that orchestra. At the same time he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, which he has directed in festivals in Finland, Belgium and Spain. Kees Bakels has conducted all the major Dutch orchestras, as well as orchestras in Europe and Russia. He has also directed many concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1985 conducted his first London Promenade concert with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. From the beginning of his career, Kees Bakels has concentrated as much on opera as on the symphonic repertoire and has conducted English National Opera productions of Ai'da and Fidelio and productions by the Welsh National Opera of La Boheme and Die Zauberflote. He has also specialised in the performance of lesser known operas by Mascagni and Leoncavallo and earlier works by Verdi in the concert-hall, broadcasting studio and opera-house. He became Principal Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in September 1988, and in 1991 was made Principal Guest Conductor in recognition of his close relationship with the orchestra. BUSINESS PARTNERS IN THE ARTS Business Partners in the Arts are a group of businesses that have combined some of their promotional resources to support the arts in the South West of England. Each partner firm believes that the arts have a critical effect on the social and economic structure of the local community. They also want to see the region's international orchestra flourish and expand, providing even more services to a regular touring area that stretches across most of southern England. The Business Partnership has helped many arts organizations since it was first established in 1989. Founder members, BT, through their Exeter office, and Bearnes, the art auctioneers, were joined almost immediately by Renwicks Garages, the West country VW and Peugeot dealer. More recently, Bray Leino, the Devon based advertising group, Clerical Medical and Westcountry Television, have joined the organization. In supporting the Bournemouth Orchestras, and this recording, the Partner firms hope to allow a wider public a chance to hear these important works, and perhaps help persuade other hesitant corporations to support the Arts. Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphonien Nr. 3 "Pastorale". Nr. 6 e-moll

Ralph Vaughan Williams wurde 1872 in Down Ampney (Gloucestershire) geboren. Nach dem fruhen Tod seines Vaters (1875) ubersiedelte die Familie nach Surrey, urn bei dem GroRvater zu leben. Hier erhielt das musikalische Kind schon fruh Klavier- und Violinunterricht, und schlieBlich fie1 die Entscheidung uber die zukunftige Ausbildung zugunsten des Royal College of Music, wo Vaughan Williams unter anderem bei Hubert Parry studierte. 1892 ging er ans Trinity College, Cambridge, wo er Geschichte belegte, zugleich aber auch Kompositionsstunden bei Charles Wood nahm. Nachdem er seine Examina in beiden Fachern abgelegt hatte, wurde Charles Villiers Stanford sein Lehrer, und es begann die kunstlerisch fruchtbare Freundschaft mit dem Studienkollegen Gustav Holst. 1897 heiratete Vaughan Williams. Im selben Jahr bot sich ihm die Gelegenheit, seinen musikalischen Horizont bei Max Bruch in Berlin zu erweitern. Wahrend er sich in der Heimat zunehrnend mit der englischen Folklore beschaftigte, betrachtete er seine Ausbildung offenbar immer noch nicht als beendet. Wie anders ware es zu erklaren, daR er noch 1908 - als 33jahriger - nach Paris ging, um unter anderern bei rnehr uber die Instrumentation zu lernen? Nun dauerte es nicht mehr lange, bis sein Name bekannt wurde: Besonders die Urauffuhrung der ersten Symphonie fur Soli, Chor und Orchester "A Sea Symphony" auf Worte von Walt Whitman und die Premiere seiner Fantasie uber ein Thema von Thomas Tallis (beide 1910) weckten die offentliche Aufmerksamkeit. Der Erste Weltkrieg bedeutete eine Unterbrechung der kompositorischen Tatigkeit insofern, als sich Vaughan Williams in den Reihen der Koniglichen Sanitater (Royal Army Medical Corps) wiederfand. Im weiteren Verlauf des Krieges wurde er zur Artillerie versetzt - eine gewiR nicht eben inspirierende Umgebung fur einen Musiker. Nach dern Krieg wurde Ralph Vaughan Williams Kompositionsprofessoram Royal College of Music, und dieses Amt legte er erst rnit Erreichen des Pensionsalters nieder. Wahrend des Zweiten Weltkrieges stellten sich neue kornpositorische Aufgaben: Es entstanden zahlreiche Filmrnusiken, die 1949 endlich in einer Partitur zu "Scott of the Antarctic" gipfelten. Aus diesern Material schuf Vaughan Williams wenig spater seine siebte Syrnphonie, die "". Und es sollten noch zwei weitere Syrnphonien folgen, ferner die Oper "The Pilgrim's Progress", eine Violinsonate sowie die Konzerte fur Harrnonika und fur Tuba - zwei ganz ungewohnliche Leistungen eines Mannes, der das achtzigste Lebensjahr bereits uberschritten hatte. Ralph Vaughan Williams starb irn August 1958, vier Monate nach der Urauffuhrung seiner neunten Syrnphonie. Wenngleich der ,aktive Einsatz irn Ersten Weltkrieg die kunstlerische Tatigkeit einschrankte, so lien sich die Inspiration dennoch nicht unterdrucken. 1916 rnachte sich der Kornponist in Nordfrankreich die ersten Notizen zu seiner dritten Syrnphonie. Allabendlich zog er sich auf einen Hugel zuruck, und wahrend er eine idyllische Landschaft im Sonnenuntergang vor sich sah, nahrn allrnahlich eine ungewohnlich friedliche Musik Gestalt an. Selbst ein Signaltrornpeter, der beim Uben offenbar des ofteren die falschen Tone traf, trug seinen Teil zur "Pastoral-Syrnphonie" bei - aus seinen Darbietungen wurde die Trornpetenkadenz irn zweiten Satz. Die Urauffuhrung des Werkes fand am 26. Januar in London unter der Leitung von Sir statt, einern der engagiertesten Vaughan Williams-lnterpreten uberhaupt. Noch erstaunlicher als die Entstehungsgeschichte ist die Anlage und Stirnrnung dieser Pastorale. Obwohl sich die Musik uber weite Strecken in gelassener Schonheit verstromt und der Horer bis zurn dritten Satz (Moderato pesante) warten rnuI3, ehe ein wirklicher symphonischer ~ohe~unkterreicht wird: Es gibt hier gewissermaRen eine naturliche Spannung, die auf Fortissimo und groOe Klangmassive weitestgehend verzichten kann. Irn Vertrauen darauf setzt Vaughan Williams auf getragene Tempi, um am SchluO rnit einer besonderen Uberraschung aufzuwarten. ijber einern Paukenwirbel singt ein Sopran hinter der Szene eine Melodie ohne Worte, ehe das Orchester allrnahlich die Fuhrung ubernirnmt und in der Wiederholung der Soprankantilene den eigentlichen Gipfel der Syrnphonie erklimrnt. Den SchluO rnarkiert die Singstimme, die sich "uber die Hugel" verliert ... Auch die Anfange der sechsten Syrnphonie konzipierte Vaughan Williams in Kriegszeiten: 1944 begann er rnit der Arbeit an dem neuen Werk, 1947 beendete er die Partitur, und am 21. April spielte das BBC Symphony Orchestra unter Sir Adrian Boult die Premiere in der Royal Albert Hall. Schon zwei Jahre spater konnte man die 100. Auffuhrung registrieren ... Der geheimnisvolle Pianissimo-Epilog bot dem Publikum und der Kritik reichlich Gelegenheit, daruber zu spekulieren, was "der Kornponist sagen wollte". Ein ubereifriger Schreiber bezeichnete die Schopfung darnals als "Kriegs-Syrnphonie" - vermutlich erlag auch er der Versuchung, in dern durchweg leisen Nachspiel jene Stille zu horen, die sich verrnutlich nach einem Atornkrieg uber der Erde ausbreiten wurde. Doch Vaughan Williams wehrte sich vehement gegen jede Art prograrnrnatischer Deutungen. In einern Brief an den Autor Michael Kennedy wies er darauf hin, daO es allenfalls eine Beziehung zu Prosperos Abschied aus Shakespeares "Der Sturrn" gabe: Die Lebenssturrne enden irn ewigen Schlaf. Und tatsachlich fuhrt der drarnaturgische Weg dieser Syrnphonie von den tragischen, ruhelosen Konflikten des Anfangs uber ein wutendes Moderato und ein geradezu teuflisches Scherzo (rnit einer regelrechten Jazz-Einlage des Saxophons) zu jener Abgeklartheit, die von Ferne an den letzten Satz aus Gustav Holsts beruhrnter Suite "Die Planeten" erinnert: dort verliert sich die "Neptunn-Musik in der Weite des Universurns, und auch hier - in der sechsten Syrnphonie von Ralph Vaughan Williams - bleibt schlieOlich ein Fragezeichen. O 1994 Cris Posslac - Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphonies nos 3 et 6

Le 12 octobre 1872, a Down Ampney Glos, naquit Ralph Vaughan Williams, I'un des artistes qui contribuerent de maniere decisive au renouveau dont la musique anglaise beneficia des la du fin XlXeme siecle. Point de difficultes materielles pour I'enfant qui avait vu le jour dans une famille de la grande bourgeoisie oir il entra tres t6t en contact avec la musique. Loin de s'y adonner passivement, Ralph, des six ans, outre la pratique du violon et du piano qu'il etudiait a I'ecole de Charterhouse, livra ses premiers essais de composition. Ses dons exceptionnels lui permirent d'entrer a dix huit ans au Royal College of Music de Londres dans la classe de composition de Charles Parry. Ce dernier lui transmit probablement son goiit pour I'histoire de la musique car Vaughan Williams, en 1892, entreprit de I'etudier au Trinity College de Cambridge et poursuivit par ailleurs sa formation theorique avec Charles Wood. Desormais "Bachelor of Mupie", le jeune homme revint au Royal College of Music en 1895 pour travailler avec Charles Stanford. C'est la que Vaughan Williams se lia d'amitie avec le futur auteur des Planetes: Gustav Holst. Deux ans plus tard, le musicien prit le chemin de Berlin oh il travailla avec Max Bruch. Durant les premieres annees du XXeme siecle Vaughan Williams se consacra beaucoup a la musique de chambre et donna naissance a des pages qu'il renia par la suite. Plus important apparait le travail de recensement de melodies populaires qu'il entreprit au m6me moment sous I'impulsion de Lucy Broadwood. Apres avoir remporte un beau succes en 1907 avec le choral Toward the Unknown Region, le musicien traversa la Manche en 1908 pour aller travailler avec Maurice Ravel. Ce sejour parisien de quelques semaines seulement fut le declic qui permit a I'artiste de pleinement epanouir une inspiration tres a son aise dans les domaines symphonique et vocal. L'achevement, en 1909, de la Sea Symphony pour soli, choeur et orchestre sur un texte du poete americain Whitman - qu'il avait decouvert lors de ses etudes a Cambridge - en offrit un premier temoignage et rept un chaleureux accueil tors du festival de Leeds I'annee suivante. Peu avant le debut du premier conflit mondial le compositeur fit executer sa Symphonie n"2 "A London Symphony", mais II dut bientBt delaisser son art pour endosser I'uniforme. Alors qu'il etait present en 1916 dans le Nord de la France en tant que membre des troupes britanniques, Vaughan Williams trouva le temps d'ebaucher sa Symphonie n03 intitulee "A Pastoral Symphony, pour soprano et orchestre. Elle fut creee a Londres le 26 janvier 1922 sous la baguette d'un ardent defenseur de la jeune musique anglaise: Sir Adrian Boult. Bien qu'elle ait vu le jour dans un contexte trouble, cette partition, toute en finesse, sans contrastes excessifs et dominee par des tempi trks moderes, reste etrangere au dechainement de violence de la guerre et presente par ailleurs I'originalite de faire appel a un langage tres modal. Organise en quatre parties, elle debute par un Molto moderato ou apres des mesures introductives confiees a la harpe et aux bois, le violon, puis le hautbois enoncent un des themes cles de ce mouvement. Suit un Lento moderato qu'ouvre un solo de cor et oh I'auteur fait usage #harmonies riches et souvent audacieuses. L'impact expressif du discours se renforce dans le Moderato pesante. On y remarquera I'intervention de la trompette dans le trio ainsi que I'ecriture fuguee de la coda ob la plume de Vaughan Williams temoigne d'une grande economie dans I'instrumentation. Le Lento conclusif fait appel au soprano. Ses interventions - une melodie sans paroles - se situent aux deux extremites d'un mouvement ou les echanges entre cordes et vents soulignent une grande connaissance des timbres instrumentaux. La naissance de la Symphonie n03 sera suivie par celle d'autres partitions significatives telles que la Messe en sol mineur (1922), le ballad-opera (1924), le Concerto pour violon (1925), I'opera (1929) ou la Symphonie n"4 (1935) qui placerent le compositeur au devant de la scene musicale britannique. II demeura etonnament productif jusqu'au terme de son existence. En effet entre 1943 et 1958, annee de son deces, naquirent encore six symphonies (nos 5, 6, 7, 8 et 9). Parmi elles, la Symphonie n06 en mi mineur represente I'une des plus populaire realisations du compositeur en ce domaine. Ecrite entre 1944 et 1947, elle fut, comme la Symphonie n"3, creee sous la baguette de Sir Adrian Boult en 1948. L'oeuvre se tailla immediatement une grande popularite et fut executee pres de deux cents fois entre 1948 et 1950. D'un caractere oppose a celui de la n03, la Symphonie en mi mineur - en quatre mouvements enchaines - se caracterise par un discours violent et contraste qui s'impose a I'oreille de I'auditeur des les premieres mesures de I'Allegro initial remarquable par son ecriture tres modulante et sa newosite rythmique. Le Moderato est un vaste crescendo appuye sur la lancinante repetition d'un motif de trois notes. II conduit au troisieme mouvement, Scherzo (Allegro vivace), dont le ton sarcastique est renforce par I'usage du xylophone et des saxophones. Un trait de clarinette basse le relie au finale Epilogue (Moderato). Tout est synonyme de depouillement dans cet ultime mouvement d'allure severe OD la musique semble victime de la violence de ton des trois episodes precedents. O 1994 Frederic Castello ENGLISH MUSIC AVAILABLE ON NAXOS

BRITTEN Simple Symphony (+ BARTOK/STRAVINSKY/ WALTON) 8.550979 The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra 8.550335 (+ PROKOFIEV/SAINT-SAENS) (with English narration) 8.550499

DELIUS Brigg Fair 1In a Summer Garden (+ ELGAR)

ELGAR Cello Concerto Op. 85 (+DVORAK) 8.550503 1Salut d'amour I 8.550229 Pomp and Circumstance Marches Nos. 1 & 4 (+ DELIUS) Symphony No. 1 IImperial March 8.550634 Symphony No. 2 8.550635 Violin Concerto Op. 61 1Cockaigne Overture 8.550489

HOLST The Planets ISuite de Ballet Op. 10

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No. 2 "London" /The Wasps (Overture) Symphonies Nos. 3 "Pastoral" & 6 WALTON Two Pieces for Strings from Henry V (+ BARTOKI BRITTEN /STRAVINSKY)

COLLECTIONS English String Festival (BRIDGE I DOWLAND 1ELGAR I PARRY) English String Music (BRITTEN I DELIUS I HOLST 1 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS I WARLOCK) a550733 VAUGHAN WILLIAMS EEI Symphonfw Nos. 3 LTastoraP'and 6 BmmemoutB Symphony OdESm

kmbmaderalo mud era to^ Lent0 - Moderato mae&so mciaR~O, -0) Symphony No. 6 in E Minor

Ep-e: Moderato

adat ht Winter Gardcas. Bolooermwth. on 1% Nwc&x, 1993 (Tracks 5 - 8). Prodm I Engineer. Brim B. Cdmhw Music Notes Keilh hmktm hbkhxFaker (Trdm 1 - 4), O.U.P. flab 5 - 8)