Thanks, New Jersey Festival Orchestra and conductor David Wroe, for a glorious performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5, presented last night in the acoustically-impressive St. Helen’s Church in Westfield, NJ. You did RVW proud!

It was also my great pleasure to meet Facebook friend Jim Barclay Jr., who, like me, traveled a little over an hour to get there. RVW devotees unite!

Two further area performances of this symphony coming up – astonishing as, to my knowledge, it has not been performed in the Philadelphia area since André Previn led the Curtis Orchestra in 1995.

On November 4 at 7:30 p.m., the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra will perform the Fifth at Calvary Baptist Church, 1380 S. Valley Forge Road, in Lansdale, PA – again, for me about an hour’s drive. Also on the program will be Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” Two of my favorite pieces in English music! Allan R. Scott will conduct.

https://www.spso.info/concert-ii-elgars-enigma/

The Main Line Symphony Orchestra will perform the Fifth on November 17 at 8 p.m., also about an hour away, at Valley Forge Middle School in Wayne, PA. The latter concert is especially attractive in that the Symphony No. 2 by Vaughan Williams pupil Ruth Gipps will also be performed. Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo” will feature as soloist Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Yumi Kendall. The conductor will be Don Liuzzi, also of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

https://www.mlso.org/concerts.htm

Prior to yesterday, I only ever heard the Fifth in concert twice! (The other time was with Leon Botstein conducting at a Bard Music Festival devoted to Sibelius in 2011.)

As always, I ask everyone to keep me apprised of Vaughan Williams performances on the East Coast. To hear the Fifth Symphony live, as it was played last night, can be transformative. It’s a hard heart indeed that can resist its third movement Romanza, but the whole thing is a wonder.

PHOTO: Vaughan Williams conducting the Fifth Symphony at Royal Albert Hall