Page 458 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

though admit to being in a minority of one. However, here it is, the
correction installed into the new score and, from now on, authentic. Peter
Horton was responsible for this new edition, and though he discusses this
point in his excellent booklet note, he makes little reference to other
modifications or corrections.

The performance is very fine, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on
excellent form. The first movement feels quite measured, though timings
reveal nothing exceptional. There is a certain coolness about the playing. The
climax of the movement is superbly handled, however, and the coda is
properly uneasy: there is more to this symphony than radiant tranquillity. I
am delighted that Yates allows his string players time to breathe in the
beautiful passage just before the final coda of the scherzo. If that final coda
isn’t quite ‘clean’, and if there are suspicions about some of the running
quavers in the middle section of the first movement, these are unimportant
blemishes. The Romanza is as passionate and richly euphonious as you are
likely to hear, and the return of the symphony’s opening music shortly before
the end is most convincingly handled. I hear less of the stamp of a strong
individual personality, such as those of Haitink or Sir Roger Norrington. Other
listeners will think that an advantage, and they might be right.

Mark Elder/Hallé Orchestra, 2011 (Hallé)
Mark Elder’s recorded cycle of Vaughan Williams symphonies is now
complete. I have not heard his reading of the Fifth for some considerable
time and, for some reason, can no longer find it on my shelves. If, by any
reason, if I lent it to you and you are reading this, I’ll have it back please! In
the meantime, my impression of the performance, favourable but sadly and
inevitably lacking in detail, will be supplemented by those of other listeners.
In a joint review with Carlos Kalmar’s performance in The Gramophone, Rob
Cowan found Elder’s the more satisfying, reserving particular praise for the
Romanza, as well as the difficult moment – for the conductor – when the
opening material returns in the finale, just before the glowing closing
passage. Robin Barber, one of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society’s founder-
members, writing in the Society’s Journal, had this to say: ‘The Fifth is
largely a live recording from a 2011 concert at the Bridgewater Hall,
Manchester, with some material patched from a rehearsal; no matter, the
end result is seamless and with no audience intrusion that I could hear. The
warm acoustic is slightly recessed, but if you turn the volume up it really
glows. The symphony has a natural forward momentum and Elder’s
unhurried approach is ideal for the unfolding of this radiant and numinous
music. Possibly to my ear there could be a greater tension at the climax of
the third movement, for this is the emotional centre of the symphony and
when resolved we know we have crossed to the other side. There is superb
playing from the orchestra in all departments and at the ethereal ending
there is that wonderful sense of homecoming and peace that make this one
of the greatest of twentieth-century symphonies.’