Malcolm Sargent on Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony

Conductor Malcolm Sargent on Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony:

A frightening symphony. For a symphony to be frightening is perhaps a good thing. Here we have the complete testament of a man who, in his seventies, looks back on the human sufferings of his time. I never conduct the Sixth without feeling that I am walking across bomb sites. . . . Chaos, despair, desolation and the peace that flows from desolation.

Charles Reid (1968) Malcolm Sargent. London: Hamish Hamilton, p.357.
Cited in: Holmes, John (1993) Conductors on Composers. Westport: Greenwood, p.195.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, ,

Featured Content

Motion and art
“The statue is concentrated in one moment of perfection. The image stained upon the canvas posses no spiritual element of growth or change. If they know nothing of death, it is because they know nothing of life, for the secrets of life and death belong to those, and those only, whom the sequence of time […]
Schnabel on recording
Having spent five days recording five Beethoven sonatas and two concertos, Schnabel wrote to his wife: This week was an ordeal, a torture chamber. “What does not kill me makes me stronger,” says Nietzsche. Hopefully (probably) this is true. I had no idea of how outrageous a process the recording on discs could be. Like […]
The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel – Psalm 79 (80)
Title:The Vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel Text: Psalm 79 (80): 9, 12-16, 19-20. R. v. 5:7 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Impromptu (Sibelius)
Title: Impromptu (Op. 97, no.5) Composer: Jean Sibelius (arr. Greg Smith) Instrumentation: Trombone and piano Product medium: PDF score and part
Shedding light on what is invisible
When we create something, whether it’s a one-woman show, a video animation, a poem, a song, whatever—we’re taking what’s inside of us and stepping it out. Now it can be shown or heard. Now it can be experienced, transmitted. Now it can be shared. When it’s shared, parts of us that were once invisible, hidden, […]
Gershwin: the life at the party
Gershwin was often the life of a party, entertaining on the piano.  He said: “The trouble is, when I don’t play at a party I don’t have a good time.” Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.47.
Other terms 2
Go to more crosswords
Blue Flemingo
Title: Blue Flemingo Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
Horowitz’s practice regime
The piano technician, Franz Mohr, observed: Horowitz was consistent in all that he did. His rehearsal was always on Saturday at 4:00 p.m., his performance was on Sunday. And I always had plenty of time to prepare his piano for the concert. Of course Horowitz would have never stolen my preparation time in order to […]
From the heart
“What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.” — Samuel Coleridge Taylor, English poet, critic and philosopher. Coleridge, Samuel (1856) Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton. London: Chapman and Hall, page xlv