United Kingdom
England
2
The "Norfolk Rhapsody No.1", based on folk songs collected by Vaughan Williams himself, is performed in this recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bryden Thomson. The paintings are by the English artist Colin W. Burns.
Ralph Vaughan Williams's Second Norfolk Rhapsody in the world premier recording by the late Richard Hickox with the LSO on a Chandos disc. This is the second of VW's three Norfolk Rhapsodies; sadly the third of the set is lost. VW originally envisaged that the three pieces could be played together to form a Norfolk Symphony but seems to have abandoned this idea. Oddly, though he withdrew Number 2 and Number 3 seems to have been lost, the first Norfolk Rhapsody is still usually known as 'Number 1'. The folk-songs used in this piece were collected in the county of Norfolk, many from the fisher-folk of King's Lynn and the inmates of the town's Workhouse.
The images which accompany the music are paintings by two local artists, Walter Dexter (1876-1958) and Leonard Squirrell (1893-1979). Dexter and Squirrell were both highly skilled draftsmen and produced commercial art and illustrations as well as 'fine-art' works in oil and water-colour, Because of the music's close associations with King's Lynn, I have started and finished my slide-show with two impressive paintings of the town viewed from the south west.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks