Vaughan-Williams - The Pilgrim's Progress

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

With a Rehearsal Scene

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult




Cast
Marie Hayward, Richard Angas, Joseph Ward, Jean Temperley, Ian Partridge, John Elwes, Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Dickerson, John Carol Case, Christopher Keyte, Gordon Webb, Wynford Evans, Norma Burrowes, Doreen Price, Rodney Friend, Wendy Eathorne, Alfreda Hodgson, Delia Wallis, Raimund Herincx, Gloria Jennings, Terence Sharpe, Gerald English, Christopher Bishop, John Shirley-Quirk, Robert Lloyd, John Noble, Sheila Armstrong, Kenneth Woollam, Geoffrey Shaw

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Vaughan Williams worked on this work for years and it shows. This opera is representative of everything he's ever done. And even though there's no rape and murder, this is opera not oratorio. The characters sing to each other. Boult's tempi may be too consistently stately for non-British ears, but there's no denying the power and majesty of this score.

Fortunately the cast was up to the task. John Noble is no one's idea of a star baritone, but in this role he sings like a star. I've heard all the great Verdi baritones but I wouldn't trade Noble's performance for anyone's. From this cast, Robert Lloyd had the most international career and he is used to great effect. The angelic tenor of Ian Partridge is featured in the beautiful scene at the 'House Blessed.' This scene is easily the equal of the composer's ravishing "Serenade to Music."

With 27m of rehearsals included, this album is a treasure. Vaughan William fans who don't require melodrama in their operas will be very pleased indeed.

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The Pilgrim's Progress is an opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams, based on John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. The composer himself described the work as a 'Morality' rather than an opera, while nonetheless he intended the work to be performed on stage, rather than in a church or cathedral. Vaughan Williams himself prepared the libretto, with interpolations from the Bible and also text from his wife, Ursula. His changes to the story included altering the name of the central character from 'Christian' to 'Pilgrim', so as to universalize the spiritual message.

The musical gestation of this opera was protracted, and was reflected in a number of musical projects in Vaughan Williams' life. For example, Vaughan Williams' earlier one-act opera The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains, from 1921, was incorporated into Act IV, Scene 2 of the later opera. His Symphony No. 5 also made use of themes originally conceived for his John Bunyan project.. He wrote a 1940 motet on Mr. Valiant-for-Truth's speech for mixed chorus. The BBC commissioned Vaughan Williams for incidental music for a 1942 radio dramatization of The Pilgrim's Progress. Herbert Murrill has characterized the opera as "summarizing in three hours virtually the whole creative output of a great composer"