Posted by Rick Denney on June 18, 2002 at 16:24:09:
In Reply to: Re: Walton posted by js on June 17, 2002 at 11:51:18:
You got that right. Every time I play a Vaughan Williams symphony recording for someone, they are always astonished, despite what is frequently considerable experience listening to orchestral music. And the Tallis Fantasia must be one of the true masterpieces of the 20th century--a work that will endure into future centuries when other fads have faded.
His work has a key characteristic of greatness--it is always instantly recognizable as his music, despite the huge range of material that he wrote. Few composers find a voice so uniquely their's without limiting their composition to a particular approach (such as, to name one example, 12-tone music).
Holst wasn't as prolific, but his skills as an orchestrator may have exceeded Vaughan Williams's. The Planets, to me, ranks with the RVW 4th, Prokofiev's 5th, and Shostokovich's 5th, in demonstrating what the 20th-Century added to orchestral music: Raw power.
Walton has been a bit tougher for me. It almost has too much color and variety for its own good, sometimes lacking the clear central purpose evident in Vaughan Williams and Holst. Elgar, of course, was the forerunner, not the definer. He achieved fame, but I'm similarly impressed with other forerunners of the time, including Charles Stanford and Hubert Parry. But you have to look with diligence to find recordings of their stuff.
Rick "who thinks lots of people like only what they are supposed to like" Denney