THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2018-2019 65
Program Notes
The concerto is incandescent, spontaneous
sounding, and immediately memorable, notes
Conrad Wilson in his book, Notes on Mendelssohn:
20 Crucial Works: “The way one splendid tune
works up to a climax before leading to another,
the poise of the accompaniments, the beauty of
the transition passages, the control of tension and
relaxation – operate so discreetly and naturally, as
if the concerto were composed in a single sweep.’’
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Symphony No. 2, A London Symphony
Duration: ca. 44 minutes
The music of England was quiescent throughout
much of the 19th century, when France, Germany,
Russia, Spain, and other European countries forged
their identities. But England soon would wake from
its slumber and give the world a distinctive style
based on deep-rooted folk traditions dating back to
the late Middle Ages.
Vaughan Williams embraced that tradition in works
both small and large. A sluggish, avuncular man in
old age, he focused on a national style rather than
riding the coattails of other European artists. “As
long as composers persist in serving up at a second
hand the externals of the music of other nations,’’
he once said, “they must not be surprised if
audiences prefer the real Brahms, Wagner, Debussy,
and Stravinsky to their pale reflections.’’
Vaughan Williams loved the tradition of English
folk and sacred music, particularly works written
to be performed in great cathedrals. After earning
a doctorate degree in music at Cambridge in
1901, he joined the English Folk Song Society, and
immersed himself in the simple tunes he found in
small villages and towns throughout England. This
was to be a turning point: “Every composer cannot
be expected to have a worldwide message,” he once
said, regarding his interest in the common music of
his homeland. “But he may reasonably expect to
have a special message for his own people.’’
This interest found a home in such agreeable pieces
as Fantasia on Greensleeves, On Wenlock Edge and,
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. These works
are hushed, accessible, mysterious and exquisitely
well crafted.
Vaughan Williams is one of a handful of famed
composers to complete nine numbered symphonies,
following Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Bruckner,
and Mahler. He divided his output between purely
abstract creations such as the numbers 4, 5, 6, 8
and 9, and the named, programmatic pieces: A Sea
Symphony (No. 1.), A London Symphony (No. 2), A
Pastoral Symphony (No. 3), and Sinfonia Antarctica
(No. 7). But don’t expect an easily recognizable
pattern: No two symphonies are alike in structure
or atmosphere; it’s almost as if nine different
composers created the batch.
First performed in 1914 at the onset of World War
I, the symphony went through three revisions
until 1936, when Vaughan Williams settled on the
work most often performed. He didn’t intend it
to be a musical postcard of London but a fleeting
impression more akin to Debussy’s La Mer. He even
suggested calling it “A Symphony by a Londoner,”
which irritated many residents of Gloustershire
County, where Vaughan Williams was born.
Still, pictorial ideas and the bustle of the city
abound: Westminster bells are portrayed by the
harp in the first movement; the second section
depicts Bloomsbury Square on a fall afternoon; the
late-night sounds of a crowded West End street in
the scherzo; and moods inspired by the H.G. Wells
novel, Tono-Bungay, in the finale. Looking back
on his career before his death at age 86, Vaughan
Williams called the “London” the favorite of his
symphonies.
Program notes by Kurt Loft, a freelance writer and
former music critic for The Tampa Tribune.. © 2018