My work took me to Saudi Arabia for several months in 1982 and I took a dozen audio tapes with me. This was one of the recordings and it was a big mistake. I became rather homesick gazing out on the endless desert landscape listening to VW, Delius and Elgar. A truly magnificent piece of music.
A very-little-known work by this magnificent composer; as his biographer Michael Kennedy wrote, "Sawdust from the master's workbench." How lovely the sawdust is.
"Age shall not weary" him! Remarkably vigorous writing for strings by a composer nearing eighty. Each movement is probably as good as it gets but I do think the Burlesca Ostinato is astonishing, especially its tongue-in-cheek opening which sounds for all the world like the orchestra going through a warm-up!! Needless to say, Boult really has the measure of this music....Stunning performance!
The Burlesca Ostinato shows off the third group of Rural Music Schools players, the beginners who could only play on open strings., although I'm sure they play throughout.
Ralph Vaughan Williams:D-dúr Concerto grosso vonószenekarra 1. Intrada: Largo 00:00 2. Burlesca ostinata: Allegro moderato 02:32 3. Sarabande: Lento 05:38 4. Scherzo:Allegro (tempo di valse) 09:40 5. Marcia e ripresa: Alla marcia 12:27 Londoni Filharmonikus Zenekar Vezényel:Sir Adrian Boult
