This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.
Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is one of the gems of the Vaughan Williams discography. Job was a Boult specialty: he recorded it three times, and this last version is the best of the three. It's not the fastest and most exciting, perhaps, but it's majestic, luminous, and so true to the character of the music and the story that it tells. I particularly like the use of optional brass reinforcing the organ at the terrifying depiction of Satan enthroned, not to mention the sturdy and so very English Galliard just before the poetic conclusion. The work is without question one of the composer's supreme masterpieces. Why it isn't played more often in concert is beyond mystifying.
Vaughan Williams arranged his single piano concerto for keyboard duo and
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orchestra because the heavy orchestration made the solo part arguably too taxing. Subsequent performances have shown this not to be the case, but I still love the big sound of two pianos in the opening Toccata, not to mention the fugal finale. This is also a much better work (in either version) than its infrequent performance would suggest, and this recording, with Vronsky and Babin the intrepid dueling pianists, probably is the best one available. Both the LSO and LPO play as if to the manner born, and the sonics are vintage EMI. An "on demand" disc from Arkivmusic.com that fans of 20th-century English music simply must own.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
Job by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Conductor:
Sir Adrian Boult
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1927-1930; England
Date of Recording: 08/1970
Venue: Kingsway Hall, London, England
Length: 44 Minutes 36 Secs.
2.
Concerto for 2 Pianos in C major by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Performer:
Vitya Vronsky (Piano),
Victor Babin (Piano)
Conductor:
Sir Adrian Boult
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1946; England
Date of Recording: 12/1968
Venue: EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London
Length: 25 Minutes 46 Secs.
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