When Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony premiered in 1948, everyone rushed to find a deeper meaning in it. Vaughan Williams was amused at first, but when one critic tried to call it the "War Symphony," he got miffed, saying, "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music." Years later, though, Vaughan Williams did allow as how maybe, just maybe, the last movement could be summed up by these words from Shakespeare's Tempest: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep." The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic performs it, in concert in Amsterdam.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Francis Poulenc: First movement from Sonata for Flute and Piano
Emmanuel Pahud, flute, Eric Le Sage, piano
Joseph Haydn: Capriccio in G Hob. XVVII:1
Andras Schiff, piano
Lucerne Festival at the Piano, Lucerne, Switzerland
Bill Evans and Eugene Lees: Waltz for Debby
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata for Flute and Continuo in E, BWV 1035
Emmanuel Pahud, flute, Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord, Jonathan Manson, cello
Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, France
Antonio Vivaldi: Second movement from Concerto in D, Op. 10, No. 3
Emmanuel Pahud, flute, Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord, Jonathan Manson, cello
Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, France
Richard Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
The New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, conductor
Avery Fisher Hall, New York City
Hour 2
Claude Debussy: Reverie
Frederique Cambreling, harp
Matthew Locke: Incidental Music from the Tempest
The Portland Baroque Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene, Oregon
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 6 in E Minor
The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden, conductor
The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Transformations: The Reverie Harp
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