Page 450 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

11 October 2022

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

The New Collector’s Edition
rec. 1965-1995, London, Liverpool, Manchester. ADD/DDD
WARNER CLASSICS 9029624537 [30 CDs: c.35hrs]

We have travelled this path before. In 2008 EMI Classics (as it then was)
issued the same 30CD set under the title The Collector’s Edition: The
Masterpieces – The Greatest Artists. It was reviewed here in that format. I
say ‘the same’ 30CD set; not quite. There are differences but the differences
are in presentation.

The 30 CDs are identical in both the old 2008 and new 2022 editions. They
offer the same tried and tested recordings that have graced the EMI ‘halls’
since the 1970s …. and in come cases earlier. EMI recorded RVW in
unswerving, sovereign fashion and quantity from the mid-1960s to the
1990s. As for the ‘New’ in the title of the box, it relates to design and
usability. ‘New’ is not, therefore, a marker for additional content such as DG
and Universal packed into their “The New Stravinsky Complete Edition” by
comparison with the original set.

The New set has been stunningly repackaged. The coffer style case is bigger
than the 2010 box. It’s about an inch larger in terms of the occupied shelf
space. This is accounted for by the fact that each disc nestles in its own
individual thick card sleeve. This imparts a more de luxe ‘look and feel’ and
the discs are easier to find and lift out from the box. The box itself carries a
colourised photograph of Vaughan Williams at, perhaps, age 45.