Album

Maybe you have to be English to fully appreciate this disc. One learns from the booklet that the opening of Vaughan Williams' Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 "evokes the sense of sky and space one feels in East Anglia." What details would have to be changed so that it would be evocative of, say, Bishops Itchington? Yet this disc, performed and issued by Manchester's venerable Hallé Orchestra, offers plenty of landscapes accessible to all. The disc is one of those worth the purchase price for a single performance: that of The Lark Ascending (track 2). This Vaughan Williams rhapsody for violin and orchestra is a work English musicians can play in their sleep—and often do. The Hallé's leader, Lyn Fletcher, is not a big name among violinists, but she gives the piece the hushed yet electric quality that made it a favorite in the first place. Arnold Bax's Tintagel also fares better than usual, with its undercurrent of romantic passion coming to the fore. All of the works, as the album title suggests, are programmatic pieces associated with a specific or general landscape, and there are a few less-famous pieces mixed in: Gerald Finzi's The Fall of the Leaf is a pastoral yet turbulent work; Delius' On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is joined by its less familiar companion in the Two Pieces for Small Orchestra, Summer Night on the River. Elgar's setting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "As Torrents in Summer" is drawn from a long choral work called King Olaf that is a rare find on U.S. programs. It is one of two unaccompanied choral pieces that close out the album, with a rather jarring effect. It might have been more effective to insert these two pieces as an intermezzo in the middle of the program, but this detracts little from an hour of music that would make a great gift for anyone heading to the English countryside on vacation—or on holiday. The enhanced CD also includes video content.

© James Manheim, Rovi

CD 1
Sir Arnold Bax Composer Tintagel (Tone Poem) Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, Mark Elder Conductor
1	Tintagel (Tone Poem)	17:01			Album Only
Ralph Vaughan Williams Composer The Lark Ascending: Romance for Violin and Orchestra Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, Mark Elder Conductor, Lyn Fletcher Violin
2	The Lark Ascending: Romance for Violin and Orchestra	15:24			Album Only
Gerald Finzi Composer Fall of the Leaf, elegy for orchestra in D-, Op 20 (orchestration completed by H. Ferguson) Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, Mark Elder Conductor
3	Fall of the Leaf, elegy for orchestra in D-, Op 20 (orchestration completed by H. Ferguson)	11:14			Album Only
Ralph Vaughan Williams Composer Norfolk Rhapsody No.1 in E- Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, Mark Elder Conductor
4	Norfolk Rhapsody No.1 in E-	10:28			Album Only
Frederick Delius Composer 2 Pieces for Small Orchestra, RTvi/19 Work 12:18 Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, Mark Elder Conductor
5	2.Summer Night on the River	6:09			$0.99
6	1.On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring	6:09			$0.99
Sir Edward Elgar Composer Scenes from The Saga of King Olaf, Op.30 (cantata) Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, James Burton Chorus/Choir Director, Mark Elder Conductor, Hallé Choir Chorus/Choir
7	As Torrents in Summer	2:15			$0.99
John Ireland Composer The Hills, for chorus Work Hallé Orchestra Orchestra, James Burton Chorus/Choir Director, Mark Elder Conductor, Hallé Choir Chorus/Choir
8	The Hills, for chorus	2:54			$0.99