Don't start up with all that "there've been no good
Vaughan Williams recordings since Sir Adrian and Sir John died" stuff. Or course,
Boult's and
Barbirolli's recordings of
Vaughan Williams' symphonies are authoritative since they gave so many of the works their premieres. But authoritative does not mean definitive, it does not preclude other possibilities, and it surely does not preclude later conductors from giving equally convincing interpretations. As
Richard Hickox has demonstrated again and again in his series of recordings of
Vaughan Williams' symphonies with the
London Symphony Orchestra, his interpretations are just as convincing as
Boult's and
Barbirolli's.
Sometimes, as with this pairing of the Sixth and the Eighth,
Hickox and the
LSO are even more compelling than
Boult or
Barbirolli.
Boult's 1949 premiere recording of the Sixth with the
LSO has the same uncompromising ferocity as
Hickox, but the playing of the
LSO is at an even higher level now that it has had more than a quarter of a century to get used to it the Sixth. And
Barbirolli's 1956 premiere recording of the Eighth with the
Hallé Orchestra has the same incandescent luminosity as
Hickox and although the
LSO cannot match the affection the
Hallé had for
Barbirolli, it plays with just as much passion, more power, and much more precision. And while the inclusion of the premiere recording of
Vaughan Williams' Nocturne for baritone and orchestra setting Whitman's "Whispers of Heavenly Death" from 1908 does not add another great work to the standard repertoire, it does restore an exquisitely lovely and radiantly beautiful lesser work by the young
Vaughan Williams to the repertoire. And you know that can't be bad. Chandos' sound is as get as recorded sound gets.