Given the “big names” in Vaughan Williams symphony cycles, it would be easy to overlook this convenient repackaging of the dual-conductor Naxos recordings. This would be a mistake: they are, for the most part, very good indeed. Kees Bakels conducts all of the symphonies except for Nos. 1 and 4. Now it just so happens that Paul Daniel’s No. 1 is the single major disappointment in the set, as much a function of mediocre singing and technically challenged recording as anything Daniel does. Elsewhere, these are some of the most exciting RVW performances around. Highlights include a particularly energized No. 6, an unusually vivid and colorful Pastoral Symphony, and versions of the last three works that withstand comparison with the best. In A London Symphony, Bakels doesn’t quite match classic interpretations by Boult (EMI) and Previn (RCA), but he’s still very good. If you missed this cycle in its individual releases, you might want to consider going whole hog and trying them all in one shot.
