Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on October 12, 1872. Since he happens to be one of my favorite composers, we’ll get a jump on the celebrations this week on “Sweetness and Light,” with what I guarantee will be a lovingly-curated Vaughan Williams miscellany.
This will not be the usual collection of greatest hits (although we’ll enjoy one or two of those, as well). Among the rarer works will be the “Bucolic Suite” of 1900, when the composer was still feeling his way toward his mature style; also the “Stratford Suite,” made up of incidental music RVW provided for a number of the Shakespeare plays during the brief period he was music director at Stratford-on-Avon (1912-13). If you’re a Vaughan Williams fanatic, I’m sure you’ll recognize some of the melodies, derived from early music and folk song, many of which the composer employed in other, better-known works. The “Stratford Suite” appears on “Royal Throne of Kings,” released on Albion Records, the recording branch of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.
Some of the music will be dreamy and luminous and some of it will be boisterous and earthy. You’re always safe with Uncle “Rafe.”
Pour yourself a cuppa and join me for “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
PHOTO: Vaughan Williams takes a slug from the mug
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