Orchestral, Symphonies, Vaughan Williams (composer)
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They’re both electrifying, and they sound absolutely magnificent...Pappano makes sure [the Fourth] sings as often as it can...This is a terrible beauty, energetic, Satanic, utterly spellbinding,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 16th April 2021
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BBC Music Magazine, June 2021, Recording of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Winner 2021
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International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated - Symphonic Music
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2021
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Record Review, Records of the Year 2021
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2022, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
Recommendedoriginal 1913 version
London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox
Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra have come up with a recording that you can cheerfully measure against most others in the catalogue, before you consider its unique extra charms! —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 1st December 2008
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Gramophone Awards, 2001, Recording of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, July 2001, Editor's Choice
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Building a Library, November 2016, Also Recommended
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony & Symphony No. 8
RecommendedRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
This is expressive and atmospheric playing, rarely heard since Boult. —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 8th April 2016
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BBC Music Magazine, July 2016, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
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Special offer. Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 1 'A Sea Symphony'
RecommendedKatherine Broderick (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone)
Hallé, Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Ad Solem, Sir Mark Elder
Mark Elder's Vaughan Williams cycle with The Halle is turning out to be the finest since the two by Adrian Boult - and the opening bars of this live recording of A Sea Symphony show why. The... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2015, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th September 2015
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Gramophone Awards, 2016, Shortlisted - Orchestral
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Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
RecommendedRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
Manze earns himself a large plus-point for taking the Fifth Symphony’s Scherzo second movement closer to Vaughan Williams’s ‘Presto’ tempo marking than usually happens…the music’s quicksilver... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2018, Editor's Choice
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Record Review, 7th April 2018, Recording of the Week
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2018
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Vaughan Williams: Valiant for Truth, Symphony No. 5, The Pilgrim Pavement & other works
RecommendedCarys Lane (soprano)
London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox Singers, Richard Hickox
This is an exceptionally powerful yet deeply moving account of the Fifth. Aided by glowing, wide-ranging engineering, Hickox's is an urgently communicative reading. The first and third movements... —
Awards:
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Building a Library, April 2003, First Choice
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Building A Library, July 2025, Top Choice - Symphony No. 5
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a performance of striking composure, lustre and palpable dedication. Not only do the Bergen Philharmonic respond with notable poise and eagerness (solo contributions are of the highest quality... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 10th February 2017
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2017, Recording of the month
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2017, Editor's Choice
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2018, Finalist - Orchestral
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Record Review, 4th February 2017, Recording of the Week
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Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 & Dona nobis pacem
RecommendedRenee Flynn and Roy Henderson
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaughan Williams
…the fervour, radiant warmth and sense of the symphony as a great journey - a 'passionate pilgrimage' - make this a uniquely compelling experience. …Dona Nobis Pacem ('Grant us peace'), It's... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th September 2008
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Record Review, December 2007, Critics Disc of the Year
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Gramophone Awards, 2008, Winner - Historic Archive
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Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 7 ‘Sinfonia Antartica’ & 9
RecommendedRowan Pierce (soprano) & Timothy West (narrator)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ladies of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, Andrew Manze
One big paragraph after another grows and surges unerringly. There are fine individual contributions too. Timothy West’s vivid reading of the superscriptions to each of the Sinfonia antartica’s... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 24th May 2019
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Record Review, 1st June 2019, Record of the Week
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[the Tallis Fantasia] is tight-reined, yet also singing and surging with no trace of anti-Romantic tendentiousness...But what makes this release so special is Elder and the Hallé's interpretation... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, January 2015, Disc of the month
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2015, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Orchestral
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