Vaughan Williams - Symphony no. 5 in D. 3rd movement - "Romanza".

[SparrowJack789]

Why oh why is there not a 'love' button. My eyes leak every time I listen to this. Without fail, one of my most favourite pieces of music ever <3 Thanks so much for putting this recording up :)

[1970SWP]

@SparrowJack789 I hear you, I totally hear you. It has such beauty, tenderness, hope and compassion. How can someone write that into the mere vibration of strings and wooden and metallic tubes. I find it miraculous!

[caroline20853]

I thought this was the most sublime piece of music in the world the first time I heard it, as a student at the Royal College of Music in the late 1970s. Deeply haunting and bittersweet. And an awesome performance from Handley and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Thank you for posting this gem.

[NonInflatable]

Those heart-rending descending notes from 10:49......unbelievably beautiful.....

[batosato]

I am a metal and rock lover and I only came across Sir Williams when I happened to heard this symphony in school in music class and by God am I in love with this piece, it has everything that a metal lover looks for, brilliant transition, mesmerizing music and out of this world sequencing. HAIL Vaughen Willaims HAIL

[YourGreatPotential]

@1970SWP: I did not see your reply to the inquiry who are performing on this recording. With regards to the tempo: I have a recording of Andre Previn with the London Symphony Orchestra with this movement at 12:15 and for me it really really works. The feel is very similar to this recording, so I am curious too about who played this. Thanks for posting; good slideshow and clear sound....and of course heavenly music.

[YourGreatPotential]

@1970SWP: Oh, I did see your reply now. So cool, as I will be getting this for X-mas this week, along with 29 other wonderful VW CDs on the EMI label. I'm thrilled! Thanks again for posting.

[1970SWP]

@YourGreatPotential Thank you. This recording was Vernon Handley conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. I have his box set of the symphonies - phenomenal!

[1970SWP]

@JaceXander - how was the performance?

[1970SWP]

@TK4218 I'm really glad this video has had such an effect on you. VW is still working his magic :-)

If you ever get a chance, go hear this live, preferably in a church, cathedral or similar acoustic. It reaches out to something greater than we can conceive on this planet and this effect ignites and is directly experienced when heard in a building that was built for the same purpose :-)

[1970SWP]

@Saunders2159 I heard this live last year in Glasgow's Kelvingrove museum. It was indeed almost too much to bear. The museum has a large interior space like London's Natural History Museum. The acoustic was very resonant and cathedral-like; perfect for this music. It was a very moving and spiritual experience.

[1970SWP]

Thank you for the slideshow comments. That piece of music is so beautiful. It speaks of a universal wish for peace, and yet reminds me of the westcountry. The pictures are of spots around the Bath area. They're very personal to me as the hilly areas are places I used to walk with my girlfriend, who lives in Bath. We're no longer together, but the music and the pictures remind me of the good times we had & I feel gratitude. Indeed, the music helps me to appreciate all the good things in life :-)

[Numboss]

Absolutely gorgeous piece. I think it was his Fifth that Vaughan Williams dedicated to Jean Sibelius. Beautiful slideshow, by the way.

[yourforte]

A beautiful use of tonality.

[kiwidave6]

I first got to know and love Vaughan Williams' opera "The Pilgrim's Progress", many years ago as a teenager. This particular theme appears early on in the work and is sung to the words, "He has given me rest by His sorrows, and life by His death" - a very moving depiction of the timeless Gospel message of our Lord and Saviour, so central to the Pilgrim's story. I was awestruck years later when I heard the 5th symphony for the first time and immediatey recognised this lovely, haunting theme.

[JaceXander]

SEEING THIS LIVE ON SUNDAY, NORTHAMPTON, UK!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[1970SWP]

@JaceXander how was the performance?

[JaceXander]

@1970SWP It was incredible! Julian Lloyd-Webber played an Elgar Cello concerto but the Vaughan-Williams was saved until last. The interpretation was brilliant, especially for the Romanza. The Scherzo was played a little slower than most recordings you'll find, it was quite unique.

[TK42138]

About one a week I come back to this video to recharge the mental batteries and maybe help to put life into some sort of perspective.

[1970SWP]

@TK42138 I'm really glad this video has had such an effect on you. VW is still working his magic :-)

If you ever get a chance, go hear this live, preferably in a church, cathedral or similar acoustic. It reaches out to something greater than we can conceive on this planet and this effect ignites and is directly experienced when heard in a building that was built for the same purpose :-)

[MertonSmurf]

gorgeous piece, studied it a A-level and has to be my favourite piece of music of all time! VW was born a few miles away from me!

[thesoundengine]

What a piece! I think I may do a synthesised version of this, but nothing beats moving air and acoustic instruments.

[1970SWP]

MsBoldface: I haven't heard The Pilgrim's progress, but you can hear the same 'progress' in the symphony, the struggle from darkness to redemption/nirvana/peace.

Saunders2159: I heard a live performance of the 5th in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum, which has a large, cathedral-like space. It was such a moving, powerful performance. My friend who came with me said afterwards, "that felt like an empowerment" (a Buddhist spiritual initiation which almost always induces a quiet bliss in the meditator)

[MsBoldface]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the connection between this symphony, and especially this movement, to the composer's opera ("morality", he called it) The Pilgrim's Progress, based on Bunyan's book, but re-naming Christian as Pilgrim to make it more universal. Listen to the opera and see how this music is given a further spiritual dimension.

[saunders2159]

Music to make you swallow hard as your eyes moisten. A live performance is almost too much to bear.

[TK42138]

@saunders2159

I'd love to hear this live.

[1970SWP]

@saunders2159 I heard this live last year in Glasgow's Kelvingrove museum. It was indeed almost too much to bear. The museum has a large interior space like London's Natural History Museum. The acoustic was very resonant and cathedral-like; perfect for this music. It was a very moving and spiritual experience.

[TK42138]

Achingly beautiful. You can't beat Ralph Vaughn Williams for his ability to put the listener 'in the scene'. This is food and drink for the soul!

[1970SWP]

Thank you for all of your thoughtful comments. I'm glad you all respond to this music in such a special way.

It is a very gentle, powerful and spiritual work. It shimmers in a way that is unique to Vaughan Williams. He captures the glow of the westcountry, the region he used to cycle round when he was young, collecting folk songs in the pubs.

This recording is on the EMI label, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Vernon Handley.

[cbcdesign001]

@1970SWP A bit too slow at 11:34. The piece has a different feel at 10:12 which was Vaughan Williams tempo in a recording made whilst he conducted the orchestra at one of the first concerts featuring this piece. Its almost depressing at this speed!

[manthasagittarius]

Thank you for the beautiful montage of images, and especially for not flicking through them so fast the mind can't pull the sight and sound together into one gesture. Lovely job of pacing, very professional.

[manthasagittarius]

Who is directing this, what's the orchestra? This is a better and more inwardly contemplative reading than Previn's, which is the other one I have heard.

Yes, it has a very Mahlerian spirit under the unmistakably British vocabulary and the composer's own beloved preferences in orchestration and so forth -- it is reminiscent of the slow movement of Mahler's Sixth Symphony, especially for the lights and darks of the instrumentation.

[cbcdesign001]

@manthasagittarius Previn's is much closer to the tempo of the piece as Vaughan williams intended it to sound though so "better" is highly questionable in my opinion!

[alexpjp]

@manthasagittarius I try not to compare different pieces too much; but in this case - tehre is NO comparison of Mahler's 6th with this. Sure, Mahler 6 is an awesome, amazing work - but this is heaven in music. No comparing, at all, of them; in my opinion.

[manthasagittarius]

@alexpjp So noted. The sublime is deeply personal. :)

[1970SWP]

jlmusicfan: These sublime moments are indeed rare. Thank you for sharing that memory :-)

[jlmusicfan57]

In the summer of 1994 I was on a bus tour of Europe. On part of this trip, our group spent several days in the town of Zermatt, Switzerland. The town is only accessible by train and motor vehicles simply are not permitted. One beautiful morning, I had this gorgeous movement playing on my Sony CD Walkman. With the serene music playing in my earphones, I had the most stunningly clear view of the Matterhorn. It represented to this day one of the most eloquent 15 minutes of my entire life.

[djohnnyf]

Discovered this RVW symphony quite recently and have developed a minor obsession with it. It is transcendentally beautiful and overwhelmingly uplifting. RVW's composing of such an ethereal work while bombs rained down on his beloved pastoral vision of Britain is a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. It is a great shame that this symphony is such a rare visitor to the concert hall, for it evokes the majesty of Mahler's triumph of the human spirit and the duality of human experience.

[1970SWP]

@djohnnyf You have hit the nail right on the head - and so eloquently put! I find this work a very personal and emotional piece. Right from the beginning there is a disquiet underneath the surface serenity. The whole symphony is a search to find real peace, true nirvana. And it's not until the final chord that he finds it. After all the searching and questioning, the symphony finally comes to rest in a softly glowing D major chord that shimmers and fades into infinity.

[ronneesam]

@djohnnyf The music encapsulates human endeavour always striving, reaching out, enduring sorrows, grief and shock. Horrors of war, splendours of those overcoming disasters , yearning for happier bygone times.

Yet there are undercurrents of mystery. Unsolveable enigmas. Unresolved.

[windstorm1000]

@djohnnyf I completely agree with you. VW's music is about the human spirit finding peace--but wedded to the countryside, where one can only find true peace. Why VW's music is not more in the music hall is a complete mystery to me. God knows humanity is in need of it now.