Maybe you have to be English to fully appreciate this disc. One learns from the booklet that the opening of Vaughan Williams' Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 "evokes the sense of sky and space one feels in East Anglia." What details would have to be changed so that it would be evocative of, say, Bishops Itchington? Yet this disc, performed and issued by Manchester's venerable Hallé Orchestra, offers plenty of landscapes accessible to all. The disc is one of those worth the purchase price for a single performance: that of The Lark ...
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Maybe you have to be English to fully appreciate this disc. One learns from the booklet that the opening of Vaughan Williams' Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 "evokes the sense of sky and space one feels in East Anglia." What details would have to be changed so that it would be evocative of, say, Bishops Itchington? Yet this disc, performed and issued by Manchester's venerable Hallé Orchestra, offers plenty of landscapes accessible to all. The disc is one of those worth the purchase price for a single performance: that of The Lark Ascending (track 2). This Vaughan Williams rhapsody for violin and orchestra is a work English musicians can play in their sleep -- and often do. The Hallé's leader, Lyn Fletcher, is not a big name among violinists, but she gives the piece the hushed yet electric quality that made it a favorite in the first place. Arnold Bax's Tintagel also fares better than usual, with its undercurrent of romantic passion coming to the fore. All of the works, as the album title suggests, are...
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