Along with the music of his friend Gustav Holst, the wind band music of
Ralph Vaughan Williams forms the core of English wind band repertoire on both sides of the Atlantic. On this two-disc set by the cracker-jack
North Texas Wind Symphony under spit-and-polish conductor Eugene Migliaro Corporon,
Vaughan Williams' canonical English Folk Song Suite, Sea Songs, Flourish for Wind Band, and especially his awe-inspiring Toccata Marziale have rarely sounded so strong, so robust, so fine, so good. But that's not all: also included here are first-rate
Vaughan Williams' wryly witty Scherzo alla Marcia for wind band from his Eighth Symphony, an arrangement of his lushly lyrical Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" originally for strings, his exquisitely luminous The Lark Ascending originally for violin soloist and orchestra, plus several expert song arrangements by diverse hands. But that's not all yet: also included are two movements from England's Pleasant Land, a historical pageant organized by novelist E.M. Forster to raise funds to preserve the English countryside, a project near and dear to
Vaughan Williams' heart. The two movements, "Exit of the Ghosts" and "Funeral March," formed the basis of the Prelude from the later Fifth Symphony, and its addition here will ensure that all
Vaughan Williams fans will have to acquire this set. Although some might question the need for so many transcriptions, the fact of the matter is that they are all skillfully accomplished and Corporon and the
NTWS play them with overwhelming conviction. GIA Publications' digital sound is effortlessly real and honest with a very nice sense of place and time.