Uploaded July 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
- Composer: Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 -- 22 June 1974)
- Orchestra: Orchestre de Radio Luxembourg
- Conductor: Darius Milhaud
- Year of recording: between 1968-1972
'Little Symphony' for chamber orchestra No. 1, "Le Printemps" {The Spring}, Op. 43, written in 1917.
00:00 - I. Allant
01:39 - II. Chantant
03:05 - III. Et Vif!
The first of Milhaud's forays into the symphony scored for small ensembles, this work, along with its five companions, is only a symphony in name. In fact, this work lasts little more than three minutes. Composed in Rio de Janiero, this music, using the polytonal elements characteristic of much of the composer's work during this time and after, maintains a pastoral, folkish feeling throughout. Milhaud's early melodies are simple, almost naïve to the point of comedy, perhaps this is why many of his early works are ignored. Sample the plaintive oboe melody of this work's second movement, or the persistent theme of the finale, to experience the composer's penchant for simple and direct musical utterances, sometimes a bit banal but frequently refreshing.
The 1st Chamber symphony is dedicated: "à Roger de Fontenay".
- Composer: Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 -- 22 June 1974)
- Orchestra: Orchestre de Radio Luxembourg
- Conductor: Darius Milhaud
- Year of recording: between 1968-1972
'Little Symphony' for chamber orchestra No. 1, "Le Printemps" {The Spring}, Op. 43, written in 1917.
00:00 - I. Allant
01:39 - II. Chantant
03:05 - III. Et Vif!
The first of Milhaud's forays into the symphony scored for small ensembles, this work, along with its five companions, is only a symphony in name. In fact, this work lasts little more than three minutes. Composed in Rio de Janiero, this music, using the polytonal elements characteristic of much of the composer's work during this time and after, maintains a pastoral, folkish feeling throughout. Milhaud's early melodies are simple, almost naïve to the point of comedy, perhaps this is why many of his early works are ignored. Sample the plaintive oboe melody of this work's second movement, or the persistent theme of the finale, to experience the composer's penchant for simple and direct musical utterances, sometimes a bit banal but frequently refreshing.
The 1st Chamber symphony is dedicated: "à Roger de Fontenay".
![Ralph Vaughan Williams - Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
- Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 26 August 1958)
- Orchestra: Jacques Orchestra
- Conductor: Sir David Willcocks
- Year of recording: 1970
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for harp(s) and string orchestra, written in 1939.
00:00 - Introduction and Theme: Adagio, B modal minor
03:40 - Variant I: B modal minor
04:52 - Variant II: Allegro moderato, B modal minor
06:38 - Variant III: D modal minor
08:05 - Variant IV: Listesso tempo
09:08 - Variant V: Adagio, B modal minor
Vaughan Williams composed the work on commission from the British Council to be played at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York City. The first performance was by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on 10 June 1939, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. Boult remembered that on this first performance New York was hit by a heat wave, while there was no air conditioning in the Carnegie Hall. The temperature in the room was 89 degrees Fahrenheit (which is about 32 degrees Celsius), so the public used the program booklets to fan themselves.
About the music Vaughan Williams remarked: These variants are not exact replicas of traditional tunes, but rather reminiscences of various versions in my own collection and those of others. However, the piece is made up of five variants on the famous 16th century folk melody Dives and Lazarus, which was one of Vaughan Williams favourite melodies, and is featured in his English Folk Song Suite. Music critic Michael Kennedy added to this: It seemed as if the fury of the F minor [4th symphony], the rumbustiouness of the Tudor Portraits and the vigour of Dona Nobis Pacem had left him [Vaughan Williams] temporarily content to recall an earlier and simpler style, matured by years of experience.
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus was also played during the interment of the ashes of Ralph Vaughan Williams in Westminster Abbey on 19 September 1958. Ralph Vaughan Williams - Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YcCEqUZXfLY/mqdefault.jpg)
![Alexander Scriabin - Feuillet dAlbum Op. 58
- Composer: Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (6 January 1872 27 April 1915)
- Performer: Joseph Villa
- Year of recording: 1989
Feuillet dalbum [album leaf] for piano, Op. 58, written in 1910.
Not to be confused with the 1905 Feuillet dAlbum in F sharp major, or two other earlier pieces entitled Feuillet dalbum the first, without opus number, dating to 1889 (in A flat major) and the second in the 3 Morceaux, Op. 45/1 (1904 -1905) this nocturne is stylistically more advanced than its earlier namesakes, exhibiting that mystical, otherworldly quality associated with late Scriabin, and has some figurations which would be used in the Poème-Nocturne Op. 61, written a year later. Cool and distant, the music here is cool and seems to convey a sense of wandering or floating. Sparsely textured, the writing displays advanced harmonic structures. The piece opens quietly, the notes sounding tentative as if gingerly testing the sonic waters to find a thematic stream to swim in. Somewhat impressionistic, the music nevertheless seems to evoke netherworlds or astral spheres. The strange main theme emerges from the hesitant murk of the opening, and soon taking on an energetic demeanor. After a while, however, the theme retreats to a ponderous manner and fades at the end, the music sounding more tentative than at the opening. Alexander Scriabin - Feuillet dAlbum Op. 58](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yfa_uMYx6KM/mqdefault.jpg)





![Ralph Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony
- Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 26 August 1958)
- Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Choirs: London Philharmonic Choir, Cantilena
- Conductor: Bernard Haitink
- Soloists: Felicity Lott (soprano), Jonathan Summers (baritone)
- Year of recording: 1989
Symphony No. 1 for soprano, baritone, chorus & orchestra (A Sea Symphony), written in 1903-1909.
00:00 - 1: A Song for All Seas, All Ships (baritone, soprano, and chorus)
20:58 - 2: on the Beach at Night, Alone (baritone and chorus)
33:02 - 3: Scherzo: The Waves (chorus)
40:00 - 4: The Explorers (baritone, soprano, semi-chorus, and chorus)
The poetry of Walt Whitman was a rallying point for Vaughan Williams and his fellow students at Cambridge in the 1890s; for the composer, Whitman remained a lifelong source of inspiration. His largest Whitman setting is A Sea Symphony, which Vaughan Williams began writing in 1903, when he was 31 years old, and which he completed, only after much revision in 1909. Whitmans decidedly non-ecclesiastical vision of the souls journey through life as a sea voyage into uncharted regions certainly appealed to Vaughan Williams, a declared agnostic who once exclaimed Who believes in God nowadays, I should like to know? according to fellow Trinity scholar Betrand Russell.
Drawing inspiration from the cantatas of Parry and the operettas of Sullivan, as well as the English folk songs he had recently begun to collect, Vaughan Williams fashioned a huge score that contains some of the finest choral writing of its era.
- In the first movement, A Song for All Seas, All Ships, a stern brass flourish is answered by full chorus, Behold the sea itself. Thematic motives that will inform the rest of the work are immediately sounded: the words and on its limitless, heaving breast, the ships are set to a noble, arching theme that appeared more than once in Vaughan Williams music, from the early unpublished tone-poem The Solent to the Symphony No. 9 of 1958. A quicker, shanty-like section ensues, making use of the folk song Tarry Trowsers, in which the baritone soloist sings a rude, brief recitative of ships sailing the seas. The dramatic entry of the soprano is heralded by the opening brass flourish; her cavatina extends the imagery into the spiritual: ...for the soul of man one flag above all the rest...emblem of man elate above death [.]
- The second movement is a nocturne, On the Beach at Night, Alone, for baritone and chorus, in which to a dark rocking accompaniment the soloist muses on the clef of the universes and, over a soft march-like tread in the bass (the legacy of Parry), envisions how A vast similitude interlocks all. The chorus unleashes a forthright and powerful declamation after which the initial mystery of the opening returns, this time with orchestra alone.
- A sprightly version of the opening fanfare, with pizzicato strings, launches the scherzo The Waves for chorus alone. The quick and lightly scored counterpoint in the orchestral accompaniment underscores the interplay of whistling winds...undulating waves...that whirling current through which a ship plies its way. The trio is a broad, Parryesque melody to the words Where the great vessel sailing and tacking displaced the surface. The movement concludes with alternating fanfares for both brass and chorus.
- The Explorers is fully half an hour in length, a finale containing some of Vaughan Williams most noble music. Here the metaphor of the soul as a ship voyaging through the seas of life is most forthrightly expressed. A quiet introduction for hushed chorus (O vast Rondure, swimming in space) is followed by a slow march describing the restless soul of man from its origins in Adam and Eve, climaxing in a vision of the poet, the true son of God who will guide mankind through his songs. The soprano and baritone soloists sing of the Soul taking ship to launch out on trackless seas in a duet of operatic, almost Wagnerian, fervor. A faster section (Away O Soul!) launches the Souls journey, with a final note of benediction (O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?) before the symphony sinks from sight in the lowest strings. Ralph Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_WsW5UPNIxM/mqdefault.jpg)


![Xaver Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32
- Composer: Franz Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 8 December 1924)
- Orchestra: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor: Neeme Järvi
- Soloist: Alexander Markovich
- Year of recording: 2013
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32, written in 1876.
00:00 - I. Allegro Patetico
10:44 - II. Allegro assai
17:53 - III. Allegro non tanto
Scharwenkas 1st Piano Concerto in B flat minor (1876) brought Scharwenka great renown. It is dedicated to Liszt, for whom Scharwenka performed it privately. The gestation of the work was not simple. It began life as a two-movement Fantasy for solo piano and Scharwenka worked on it for several years from the early 1870s before it reached its final shape. In three movements, the result is a seemingly conventional structure, yet the content reflects its origins as a solo fantasia. It is famously the only (or perhaps one of the few) concertos that features 3 allegro movements consecutively.
Scharwenka often performed this concerto to great success in programs that also included Beethovens Emperor concerto. Hans von Bülow called it original, amiable throughout, perfect in form... [with] admirable intrumentation. Such illustrious pianists as Constantin von Sternberg, Emil von Sauer, Moriz Rosenthal, and Eugen dAlbert had this concerto in their repertory. But it was missing for many decades, until Earl Wild revived the concerto in 1968, and made the first recording of it.
- The stirring opening tutti is cut short by the piano, which wrests the spotlight from the orchestra, and so it remains. What then emerges, rather than a contest, is a constantly evolving elaboration not only on the initial theme but also on more lyrical and introverted ideas, interspersed with moments of bravura. This became a feature of later concertos too. Of particular note is the wistful tone of the Adagio section, introduced by strings, the melody given to the violas.
- As much of the first movement is in reflective mood, it is not surprising that Scharwenka replaces the traditional slow movement with a Scherzo. Its main theme cross-fertilises the triple metre with duple phrasing and the second theme has a simple but beguiling tripping rhythm. The movement shows the strong influence of the style brillant, recalling composers such as Hummel and Chopin, while elsewhere in the concerto parallels may be drawn with Liszt and Grieg.
- It is in the finale that the elements of the fantasia are most pronounced: a mysterious, expectant orchestral opening, a solo peroration ending with a brief allusion to the viola theme from the first movement, echoed by the clarinet. Only then is the movement fully launched, yet it becomes entranced by the recalled theme. Liszt’s cyclic principles are tempered by Scharwenka’s quasi-improvisational approach, which at last gives the soloist a designated Cadenza, marked Maestoso, which also reintroduces the work’s opening theme. A compelling coda ensues.
The piano concerto is dedicated: Franz Liszt, verehrungsvoll zugeeignet. Xaver Scharwenka - Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 32](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a4Jou7pgSzM/mqdefault.jpg)