Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 (Live) London Philharmonic Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth & Vladimir Jurowski

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Symphony No. 4 In F Minor
• 1 I. Allegro 08:00
• 2 II. Andante moderato 09:37
• 3 III. Scherzo: Allegro molto 05:04
• 4 IV. Finale con epilogo fugato: Allegro molto 08:13
• Symphony No. 8 In D Minor
• 5 I. Fantasia (Variazioni senza tema) 11:15
• 6 II. Scherzo alla marcia (Per gli stromenti a vento) 03:32
• 7 III. Cavatina (Per gli stromenti a corde) 08:53
• 8 IV. Toccata colle campanelle 04:55
• Total Runtime 59:29

Info zu Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 (Live)

Vaughan Williams was one of the 20th century’s most important symphonic voices. He composed in almost every genre, and even within his nine symphonies he encompassed a wide range of styles, sound-worlds and formal approaches.

At its 1935 premiere the Fourth Symphony surprised many who were more used to the ‘pastoral’ sound of his earlier symphonies. Yet fellow British composer William Walton admired the work greatly, speaking of it as ‘the greatest symphony since Beethoven’. The Eighth is the shortest of the composer’s symphonies, and much more light-hearted and joyous in mood. At the same time, it too is full of remarkable invention, especially the composer’s experiments in orchestral colour.

Vladimir Jurowski has a strong affinity with British music, having embraced (both in concert and on the LPO Label) Britten, Holst and increasingly Vaughan Williams, as well as contemporary British composers such as Mark-Anthony Turnage and Julian Anderson.

Ryan Wigglesworth is the leading composer/conductor of his generation. He works with leading orchestras internationally and is currently English National Opera’s Composer in Residence. He has a formidable pedigree with British repertoire including Birtwistle’s The Minotaur at Covent Garden and Knussen’s Higglety Pigglety Pop! at Aldeburgh, and has already introduced a host of British music, including the Sky Arts Award-winning world premiere of Julian Anderson’s The Discovery of Heaven with the LPO. This performance was released on the LPO label in 2013 with The Crazed Moon and the world premiere recording of Fantasias, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. The disc was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and a finalist in their 2014 Awards.

Both these Vaughan Williams symphonies were recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall. The Symphony No. 4 concert in May 2013 was part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise year-long festival of 20th-century music, inspired by Alex Ross’s bestselling book of the same name.

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 24 September 2008 (Symphony No. 8) and 1 May 2013 (Symphony No. 4).

London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO)
Recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Julian Anderson is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence, to be succeeded by Magnus Lindberg from September 2014.

The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival, charting the influential works of the 20th century. 2014/15 highlights include a season-long festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces; premieres of works by Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Colin Matthews, James Horner and the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg; and appearances by today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2014/15 season include appearances across Europe (including Iceland) and tours to the USA (West and East Coasts), Canada and China.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 75 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with Vladimir Jurowski; Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf; and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence.

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; fusion ensemble The Band; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Vladimir Jurowski
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow in 1972, and completed the first part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the Musikhochschule of Dresden and Berlin, studying conducting with Rolf Reuter and vocal coaching with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco.

Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, becoming the orchestra's Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001), Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000-2003), Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005-2009) and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001-2013).

Vladimir Jurowski has appeared on the podium with many of the world's leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Highlights of the 2014/15 season and beyond include his return visits to the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia Orchestras; tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and an unique project with the London Sinfonietta in Moscow to celebrate the Anglo-Russian Year of Cultural Exchange.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenufa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel und Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at the Welsh National Opera, War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris, Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala Milan, Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre, and Iolanta and Der Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as Die Zauberflöte, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen, Ariadne auf Naxos and Peter Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Opera. In 2013 he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Frau ohne Schatten, and future engagements include Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exile by Giya Kancheli for ECM, Meyerbeer’s L’etoile du Nord for Marco Polo, Massenet’s Werther for BMG, and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra, including Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 3 and Stravinsky's Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée, Shostakovich Symphonies No 1 & 6, Prokofiev Symphony No 5, and Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet Incidental Music. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on their LPO Live label, including the complete symphonies of Brahms, Mahler Symphony No. 2, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred, and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. Most recent releases have included Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy, and an album of orchestral works by the Orchestra's Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in CD releases of La Cenerentola, Tristan und Isolde and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of Ariadne auf Naxos, La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Don Giovanni, and Rachmaninov’s The Miserly Knight, and other DVD releases include Hansel und Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera New York, his first concert as London Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler, and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven symphonies 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

Booklet für Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 (Live)