Saturday 12 January 2008

Classic FM & Ralph Vaughan Williams


I am not a big listener to Classic FM. However it is often on when I am in the car or early in the morning when I am making the coffee.

I listen enough to know that typically RVW is represented by three pieces:- The Lark Ascending, The Fantasia on Greensleeves and Seventeen Come Sunday from the English Folk Song Suite. These works are played over and over again - it is almost as if the great man wrote nothing else. Now I guess that there will be other compositions given on an occasional basis - but these three are obviously the tops.
So it was nice to be wakened to something different this morning- Elihu's Dance of Youth & Beauty from Job. This is where the young Elihu rebukes Job for daring to curse God - 'Ye are old and I am very young.'

This is one of most moving parts of the work and perhaps even in RVWs total output.
Thanks Classic FM! Only one snag - poor old Nicola pronounced Job as in 'Bob' rather than Job as in 'Robe'!

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