The Hallé: Vaughan Williams’ Symphonies No 7 and 9 — successful end to the cycle

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Unlike some composers whose reputation takes a nosedive after their death, Vaughan Williams has benefited from our new openness towards individualism in the music of the mid-20th century.

During the 1950s, he enjoyed a warm relationship with The Hallé in Manchester and it is fitting that the orchestra has stepped forwards with an anniversary cycle of his symphonies on disc. This final double album couples the Symphonies Nos 7, Sinfonia antartica, and 9. A box of the complete symphonies on five discs is being released at the same time.

To hear the nine symphonies in sequence is to appreciate how wide VW’s musical horizons were. Although so much of his music is quintessentially English, he studied with Ravel in Paris and the later symphonies are far-sighted in their inspiration.

The Symphony No 7 is drawn from the soundtrack he wrote for the epic adventure film Scott of the Antarctic. It has sometimes been criticised for not being a real symphony, but the cinematic scope is wide and the atmosphere of frozen landscapes uniquely chilling. Mark Elder and The Hallé are subtle and spacious, and the playing is beautiful.

Elder recently admitted in Gramophone magazine that he found Symphony No 9 the “hardest to approach”. Like Shostakovich’s last symphony, it suggests that the end of a composing life brings more questions than answers. Unrushed, never crude, this performance lives up to the high standards of the cycle as a whole. The set also includes The Lark Ascending and the Norfolk Rhapsody No 1.

★★★★☆

‘Vaughan Williams: Symphonies No 7 and 9’ is released by Hallé