Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D; Symphony No. 9 in E Minor. (CD Review)

by Ryan Ross

Antonio Pappano, conductor; London Symphony Orchestra. LSO Live 0900

Ralph Vaughan Williams was such a complex figure that those with narrower outlooks (i.e. most of us) can have difficulty grasping the entirety of the man. It’s too easy to label him a conservative based upon his pastoral works, his interest in religious subjects, his patriotism, and his commitment to accessibility. On the other hand it’s almost equally easy to go too far in the opposite direction and, noting his links to some progressive causes and participation in the First World War, recklessly make him over as a “modernist.” A tradition-loving center-leftist (as I believe he came to be in his maturity) can seem like a cognitive dissonance in these divided times. When we consider his music, and even just the cycle of nine symphonies, we encounter a sheer expressive range to match his complex personality. Reflecting upon recordings of these works so far made, I would have to say that conductors often deftly embrace either his tranquil, visionary polarity or his dramatic, often dissonant opposite. But seldom do we get someone who is great at both. Excellent performances of single works are not uncommon, but I have yet to hear a whole cycle that is completely convincing all the way through.

 

Such were my thoughts as I listened to this recording. Truthfully, I was waiting for a more forceful conductor to give us a break in these symphonies from an overall British tendency toward tepidness. Antonio Pappano granted this wish but also made me see just what the likes of Adrian Boult and Andre Previn did so well. Pappano and the LSO give sharp, exciting accounts of the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. On one level I would readily recommend them to anyone. But in my heart of hearts, I would still wish for that elusive numinous quality I had almost begun to take for granted. It isn’t even that Pappano does anything particularly “wrong”; he nearly always follows the scores with precision. Maybe sometimes too much precision at the expense of other stuff. Because in the very best interpretations of these two scores (which his aren’t), I can apprehend a little bit of what, in the words of the composer, “lies beyond sense and knowledge.”

I’ll start with the Ninth Symphony. Somewhat paradoxically, I consider this the better performance here and yet also the most difficult to explain in terms of why it holds me just a mite at arm’s length. There is perhaps some slight overplaying of dynamic markings in the first couple of movements (faintly reminiscent of Riccardo Chailly’s Beethoven, I thought), but not enough to matter overmuch. Otherwise, the music-making is a clinic in precision. What’s a bit underdone is a sense of sweep. The tragic middle theme in the second movement is absolutely heart-breaking at its climax. This music was originally intended for an opera treating Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Anyone who has read this novel knows how devastating it is emotionally. I need more of that devastation here. Likewise, in the outer sections of the movement (inspired by the Ghostly Drummer of Salisbury Plain) there could be more quiet menace. Sweep and menace are also somewhat under-supplied in the finale and third movement respectively. To be fair, I don’t know how Pappano is supposed to achieve them, but I know when they are present or not.

 

Pappano and Co. get off to a wonderful start in the Fifth Symphony: the first movement is extremely well conceived. I was excited after hearing it, and eager to see the direction the rest of the performance would take. But, as happens more often than I’d like, the remainder failed to live up to the beginning. The second movement is too rushed and “machine-like;” we lose the mystery of this quietly unsettling section. In the famous Romanza, Pappano overdoes some of the louder dynamics. Even when this movement reaches forte, there needs to be more gestural restraint, or we lose its visionary quality – the Pilgrim’s Progress-style reverence that hangs over the music. The finale repeats some of the problems in its two predecessors: Pappano just needs a calmer touch.

 

These are good performances, especially the Ninth. Pappano and the LSO bring a refreshing energy to the table, which served particularly well in this cycle’s first installment featuring the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies. (That Fourth is among the best available.) But Nos. 5 and 9 pose interpretive challenges that are unkind to a one- or even few-dimensional approach. Viewing this recording as part of the larger catalogue, it’s clear that breadth and depth come at a premium for these works.