Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony. (Choral And Song).(Ralph Vaughan Williams)(Sound Recording Review)

[] Goerke; Polegato; Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Spano. English text. Telarc CD-80588

The single most striking moment of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 1 (A Sea Symphony), to poems of Walt Whitman, is the very opening: a brass fanfare, followed by the fortissimo, a capella choral utterance of the first line, "Behold the Sea." As a B-flat minor triad resolves strikingly to D major, the orchestra comes thundering back in, with all the mighty grandeur of the ocean itself. In the new recording of A Sea Symphony, with Robert Spano conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, this thrilling opening is everything it should be, and it is for the most part a sign of things to come. The slow second movement, "On the Beach at Night, Alone," has some wonderful sotto voce interplay between baritone Brett Polegato and the chorus. When the chorus later reaches the climax of the movement, it rings with the homogeneity and unity of articulation that characterizes the Robert Shaw tradition, which is obviously in good hands with Norman Mackenzie, the ASO director of choruses. The chorus gets a bit submerged in the rousing, effects-laden scherzo movement ("The Waves"); although they are impressively precise in their rhythms, they're not really a match for the ...