VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - SINFONIA ANTARTICA. 1.

[Elitist20]

Quotation for First Movement:

'To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent...

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;

This...is to be

Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;

This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory'

- Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

[Psyche777able]

Wasn't this music used in a movie with Sir John mills? Great piece of music.

Thanks for posting.

[Strefanasha]

Terribile iste locus est.

I do not hear hopelessness in this work, but the terrible grandeur of Almighty God who decreed that some realms were off limits to presumptuous men

[budgienation]

Ralph Vaughan William's Symphony No. 7, "Sinfonia Antartica" should convince anyone of this guy's greatness. He's one of the most under appreciated composers of any era. Everybody knows 'Fantasia on a theme' but he's so much more than that!

[KrillLiberator]

Ohh ho ho, lovely! Wow, B nailed this; VW's best symphony for me, beating Sibelius at his own game, awe-inspiring in the truest sense.

Just the opening with the double build-up and that massive crescendo is enough to pin me to my seat.

And the nature-painting is superb, but I think what I like best about the 1st movement overall is it's wonderfully ironic structure. We hear Antarctica's terrifying majesty being 'trampled by naive Imperial arrogance. Oh, so optimistic and how foolish of them!

[spacepatrolman]

@KrillLiberator alan hovhaness destroyed 2000 compositions because he didnt like being called the american sibelius and wrote 2000 more

[KrillLiberator]

@spacepatrolman Cripes! I did not know that; if it had been me, I might have taken it as a compliment.

[spacepatrolman]

@KrillLiberator yea me too but he strived for originality

[afternoondave]

Utterly creepy, vast & cold, & breathtakingly beautiful.

[xtremegamer515]

My school's orchestra is playing this symphony. I absolutely love it!

[runupahill1]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart xwsftassel. Nobody contributes the drama to this piece like Barbirolli.

[starrgazer1000]

What an excellent recording for the year.

[MRPandoraHartDR]

Doctor Who. Night of the Humans, the writer David Llewellyn said this became the soundtrack to that book- I can hear why.

[zurrillo1]

A Masterpiece by RWV.

[uncatila]

how did i come to pass

this frozen journy now at last

knot and line to the peril of my soul across this winter do i go

shall i find a way and then return

to tell my children just what i've learned

and my sweet wife then shall i see

beyond this fridgid wastland will it be

then god perhaps might sooth my mind

should life and limb I leave behind

[kikapulido]

Howard Shore sure was listening! I just found this great composer and couldn't be happier! He is a true master!!!

[FatAlbertCamus]

Never heard it played so ponderously. This is magical. Thanks.

[holaserena]

@xwsftassell i love listening to the lp, scratches and all.  What a find.

[holaserena]

@xwsftassell I love listening to the lp, scratches and all. What a find.

[tokaicarl]

@holaserena yeah i miss vinyl- something so more natural than digital......

[TK42138]

A fantastic piece of music especially when listened in context with the film.

The last few scenes with them all writing their last letters to their loved ones is moving and affecting on so many levels. Vaughn Williams got it spot on.

[RuthMK]

Like the music at around 3:16, 3:15

[KiwiExpat34]

Fantastic. Real evocation of the great white continent.

And that's just the 1st movement. The whole thing has 5 movements, all brilliant.

[ebbnormal]

the maestro of pan-triadic composition! *tips his hat to thee, great VW*

[BradBrassman]

You can feel the desperation....and the cold. What also comes across is the despair and sacrifice.

"I am going out, I may be some time"

Such is the genius of RVW

[TK42138]

Couldn't put it better myself.

[mayitpleasethecourt]

vinyl is weird

[spacepatrolman]

they only had 78s in antartica then look at the book on shakelton

[mayitpleasethecourt]

i dont get it

[spacepatrolman]

Shakelton was an explorer that went to antartica there are pictures of his crew listening to 78 rpm records in antartica.

[mayitpleasethecourt]

i said nothing about shakleton or antarctica

but only that vinyl

or records as i think they were once called

is

or was

weird

very weird

[peterdcarter1]

oh, wow , thanks.

[mayitpleasethecourt]

for what

[alex57675]

i played this with the leeds youth orchestra, with a screen behind us, narrator and a choir, it was the best concert ever, truly amazing music, its reli inspired all of us

[NonInflatable]

How do you communicate a total absence of hope, loneliness, desperation, the certainty that you will never see your home and your loved ones again, strangeness, unbridgeable distance from everything normal and familiar, the enormity of the forces you are struggling against?

Vaughan Williams did it, brilliantly.

How underrated he is - what a GIANT .

[spacepatrolman]

@NonInflatable there was a part in the movie when he talks his friend into going on the expedition and his wife starts crying she knows she will never see her husband again 6:03 vaughn williams had another symphony that keeps getling louder eith the same chord over and over until it gets softer some say its a nuclear war but he said he wasnt saying that .

[scousesusan]

@spacepatrolman The "other" symphony is RVW's 6th symphony. The end is so quiet I bought my first CD and player especially to hear it.

[spacepatrolman]

@scousesusan yea i found that record in a garage sale I never had any intention of getting cds but someone gave me a cd player so I found some

[NonInflatable]

What fond memories I have of John Barbirolli, conducting the Halle in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

Only trouble was that he had a distressing habit, later in life, of grunting as he was conducting.

You soon learnt to book a seat at the back of the Hall!

[hectorfprez]

Hear the wind machine in the second movement ....!

[hectorfprez]

Just amazing !!! one of the best 20 century sinphonies:::!

[mfutts]

very hitchcockian

[EuropeanArchive]

More from your classical vinyl collection very much appreciated!

------------------------

Greetings,

Rolf

Historical classical recordings

European Archive, Paris

[Redveg993]

Here in London today the snow is around 3 inches deep and keeps on coming. Side roads are virtually impassable, stations closed and no buses are running.

This Vaughan Williams symphony seems very appropriate and evocative of what's outside the house, the irony being that its currently summer in Antarctica. Does anyone know how much temperatures rise there in summer, and is darkness once more encroaching on this frigid continent? How many hours daylight in February?

[gandalfpres]

3 inches mean that stations are closed? Not too used to the snow I see.

[BeatBuddy]

I have this piece and I've played it countless times. The version I have is conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

[bally28]

just some trivia, but SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI's wife died Jan 2008..at 92yrs old.

[rvaughanwilliams1988]

@bally28 not as old as RVW's 2nd wife Ursula, she died in 2007 at 96!

[rredhawk]

I'm used to the recording by Previn and the LSO, but this one sounds at least as good.

Our copy of VW's 9th was also by Previn and LSO, but all others VW symphonies we had were by Adrian Bolt or John Barbarolli. Mosly on Angel Stereo LPs pressed back in the 70s.

What memories!

[spacepatrolman]

they all have beautiful pictures on the covers as do all the covers of the grand canyon suite

[tudorprincess15]

i'm doing course work in a subject called expressive arts. we're doing about this simphony...well...the last movement. it scares the hell out of me! but i think it is so beautiful and haunting thanks for posting!

[spacepatrolman]

it scares me too it sounds supernatural the soundtrack to the thing must have been influeunced by this

[inregionecaecorum]

Just amazing, dunno what it is about VW, but he does it every time. Terra Incongnita indeed.

[Antofagastinamarilla]

La música forma la soledad, el hielo, el miedo y la inmensidad. ¡Qué hermosa y que grande es esta sinfonía!.

[pietstamitz]

Thank you, i guess he did more premieres, i didn't expect

him to be so very inspired in this repertoire.

I will look for the CD-s.

The other giant-interpreter:

Sir Adrian Boult on Decca, made in the fifties too.

[pietstamitz]

Great performance, really scaring and icy, Sir John is the

other VW-giant. I never have heard this more intense.

Did he conduct the premiere?

[stickwagger]

This is so expressive, is there a modern reproduction of this performance?

[kazbah1923]

The music makes me feel so small, as if I was there against this incredible force of nature ..

Thanks for posting ..

Music also used in the Ealing film Scott of the Antartica

[Sereno44]

Thrill with Antartica... Since I was in my twenties.. this incredible master piece thrills me...

[cirillod]

"To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite,/ To forgive wrongs darker than death or night,/ To defy power which seems omnipotent,/ Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent:/ This... is to be/ Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free,/ This is alone life, joy, empire and victory" (P.B. Shelley, Prometheus Unbound)

[cirillod]

"To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite,/ To forgive wrongs darker than death or night,/ To defy power which seems omnipotent,/ Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent:/ This... is to be/ Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free,/ This is alone life, joy, empire and victory" (P.B.Shelley, Prometheus Unbound)