Vaughan Williams: The Wasps (2006)

performed by Andrew Kidd (bass), Chris Wines (talking), David Stuart (bass), Francis Brett (bass), Gareth Jones (bass), Henry Goodman, Julian Stocker (tenor), Kevin Kyle (tenor), Mark Wilde (tenor), Nick Todd (tenor), Ollie Winstone (tenor), Richard Suart (vocals)
composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Since the work's premiere by the Cambridge University Greek Club in 1909, there have been exactly two complete performances of Vaughan Williams' incidental music in context for Aristophanes' The Wasps: a radio broadcast in 1972 and this performance also taken from a radio broadcast in 2005. One can readily understand why. The score is, relatively speaking, early Vaughan Williams. Just back from his three-month trip to study with Ravel, the 38-year-old composer had yet to turn out much music that was characteristic, much ... Read More

Since the work's premiere by the Cambridge University Greek Club in 1909, there have been exactly two complete performances of Vaughan Williams' incidental music in context for Aristophanes' The Wasps: a radio broadcast in 1972 and this performance also taken from a radio broadcast in 2005. One can readily understand why. The score is, relatively speaking, early Vaughan Williams. Just back from his three-month trip to study with Ravel, the 38-year-old composer had yet to turn out much music that was characteristic, much less much music that was often performed. But after Ravel's tutelage, Vaughan Williams was at last ready to embark on his career as a composer and the score for The Wasps was one of his first fully representative works. Fans of English music probably already know the work's Overture, a bright and buzzing number with a broad melody at its center, and fans of Vaughan Williams probably already know the suite the composer extracted from score. But no one, unless they were listening to the... Read Less