Only the most hardcore historical recording fan will want to pay full price for this 1949 edition of Vaughan Williams’ apocalyptic Sixth Symphony. Not that the performance is bad. On the contrary, it’s probably excellent, at least what you can hear of it. It just sounds incredibly dull and congested (save for a screaming piccolo in the third movement), compromised at every turn by wretched instrumental balances (first and third movements), weak bass (where’s the bass drum at the opening?), and bodiless strings (that finale depicts desolation, not desiccation). More to the point, this issue vies for attention with Boult’s standard-setting Decca version of a few years later, currently available on Belart in superbly remastered mono. Both recordings enjoyed the imprimatur of the composer, and both offer more energy and bite than Boult’s last go at the symphony for EMI. The bits of film music, equally dismally recorded, offer little additional enticement. If you want Boult’s VW Sixth, Belart is the way to go. Of course, Vernon Handley, Leonard Slatkin, and Andrew Davis have to one degree or another bettered all three of Boult’s performances in recent years, but that’s another story entirely.
