Colin Davis delivers an excellent performance of Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony, aptly ferocious in the first movement, threatening in the second, with a raucous scherzo and a hypnotic finale. It’s a symphony he’s always conducted well, and the Bavarian Radio players dig into the music with plenty of passion and gripping sense of discovery. Unfortunately, the symphony comes shackled to a wholly unnecessary version of the Enigma Variations.
It’s not a bad performance by any means; indeed, after the somewhat mannered opening theme it’s mostly quite good. Davis is particularly exciting in the quicker bits: W.M.B., Troyte, G.R.S., and the finale. He also captures the scary interlude in Romanza very dramatically. Nimrod, though, is a bit of a letdown, its tension oddly distributed and the string ensemble slack. Had this one variation been better, I could recommend this disc with almost no reservations. But an Enigma without a great Nimrod just doesn’t cut it. As it is, if you’re in the market for a fine RVW Sixth, you’d do well to sample this one.
