MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Vaughan Williams: Sir John in Love (Complete Opera)

"Not a weaklink in the largely British cast. Donald Maxwell is a sympathetic Falstaff. And the Northern Sinfonia and Sinfonia chorus perform with exquisitely articulated verve. An absolute delight."
***** Five Stars (Pick of the Month)
- BBC Music Magazine(Oct 2001)

'…but the extra fullness and richness of the Chandos sound coupled with as keen a concern for the atmospheric beauties of the score, notably in off-stage effects, gives the new set the obvious advantage.'
- Gramophone

'It could not have come at a better time, and anyone who invests in it can count on experiencing that great sense of discovery that can never be taken for granted'
- Schwann 'Inside'

'Deux heurs de pur ravissement'
- Diapason

The first recording for 26 years, Chandos is proud to present a modern digital recording of this rare opera based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. It is performed by a cast of the very best of English talent, many of whom often work together with Richard Hickox.

Falstaff, as Herbert Foss wrote in his book on Vaughan Williams, 'had been slyly standing at Vaughan Williams's elbow for many long years'. In fact since 1913, when the composer wrote the music for a number of Shakespeare's plays at Stratford-upon-Avon, including The Merry Wives of Windsor, on which Sir John in Love is based. Vaughan Williams composed the opera between 1924 and 1928, working on it contemporaneously with the suite Flos campi, the oratorio Sancta civitas, the first movement of the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto and the masque On Christmas Night: a richly fruitful period.

Vaughan Williams closely followed Shakespeare's plot, but the play would not provide him with the needed arias and choruses, so he interpolated lyrics by different poets and from other Shakespeare plays. He also utilised English folk tunes in the musical texture in order to enhance dramatic points in the opera.

The big challenge, against which Vaughan Williams knew he would be measured, was Verdi's Falstaff. 'I hope it may be possible', Vaughan Williams wrote, 'to consider that even Verdi's masterpiece does not exhaust all the possibilities of Shakespeare's genius'. Of course, it is pointless to listen to Sir John in Love with Falstaff in mind. The two composers handled Shakespeare's play very differently. The libretto of Verdi's opera intensifies and simplifies the plot and presents Falstaff as the central and dominant figure. Vaughan Williams's Falstaff is more genial, expansive and lyrical. He is not merely a monstrous mountain of flesh or a buffoon, for Vaughan Williams allows him dignity as well as conceit. Where Verdi's opera erupts and sparkles, Vaughan Williams's, in a more leisurely dramatic tempo, rumbles and glows.

Note: Outer box has a little scuffing