Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Cotswold Romance / Death of Tintagiles - London Philharmonic Choir / London Symphony Orchestra / Richard Hickox
The bustling cantata "Cotswold Romance" came into being as part of Ralph Vaughan Williams's attempt to script a major opera, one of national scope.Hugh the Drover, completed in 1914 and first performed in 1924, was deemed less than a success, in part because of a pivotal boxing scene. So Vaughan Williams extracted "Cotswold" as the 34-plus minute cantata, collected here with the incidental music for Maurice Maeterlinck's playDeath of Tintagiles. Richard Hickox helps the cantata shine by drawing on the British folk song elements that Vaughan Williams invoked. The role of Mary is performed by soprano Rosa Mannion, and Hugh's character is sung by Matthew Brook. While both perform excellently, the crux of the cantata is the role of the voluble London Philarmonic Choir and the downright exuberant London Symphony Orchestra. Just as the original opera chronicled Hugh's travails, from love to pugilism to the stocks to freedom and, again, love, so too does the cantata. It's an altogether exciting piece of work, capturing so many elements of Vaughan Williams's oeuvre and still staying well outside the usual, what with the narrative progressions and the chorus's pivotally dramatic role. "The Death of Tintagiles" closes the CD with 14-plus minutes of far more foreboding music.--Andrew Bartlett