Five Variants of "Dives & Lazarus"by Vaughan Williams performed by Orchestra of the Swan

Five Variants of "Dives & Lazarus" by Vaughan Williams performed by Orchestra of the Swan. Our new single is out now: lnk.to/Divesan...
Extracted from Labyrinths digital concert by Orchestra of the Swan.
Filmed by Woodbury Studios
The Swan Players:
Violin 1
1 David Le Page
2 Catherine Leech
3 Shulah Oliver
4 Liz Hodson
5 Rebekah Allan
Violin 2
1 Julian Rodriguez
2 Caroline Mitchell
3 Barbara O'Reilly
4 Richard Laing
Viola
1 Rose Redgrave
2 Vanessa Murby
3 Robyn Lund
4 Sophie Broadbent
Cello
1 Nick Stringfellow
2 Chris Allan
3 Anna Menzies
4 Anna Joubert
Bass Claire Whitson
Harp Daniel De-Fry
Funded by Arts Council and The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust.
With thanks to Lodders Charitable Foundation.

[@derekpollard3801]

I have no idea why Vaughn Williams music moves me like it does, but it does!

[@trendybistro]

Because it doesn't feel as pretentious as most classical music. It feels like a windy breeze on a delightfully sunny day on the side of a lake with surprisingly still water. It's not overly bashful, it's not in your face, it lingers in front of you in a beautiful display.

[@danieldarcy7862]

Last Saturday I went to a concert in Salisbury Cathedral and listened to the Bournemouth Symphony play VWs Tallis Variations. Absolutely sublime experience.

[@Mompfried]

One factor is perhaps the fact that Vaughn Williams often incorporates great folk tunes and adapts them in an ingenous way.

[@malcolmbird1933]

"Dives & Lazarus" has been my friend and by my side for more than fifty five years of my life.

[@daviddavenport9350]

This was my lovely little wife's favorite work of Vaughan Williams....she was a remarkable violinist/violist and so, so intelligent....

[@trendybistro]

5:20 is the most beautiful moment in music for me. The build to it and the smiles on their faces just cements it.

[@user-eo6qm3pm6i]

Do. you mean approximately at 9:50 through into 10:xx?

[@oldedwardian1778]

This achingly beautiful music is as close as we can get to the mind of that great man who is perhaps the most English of English composers. This together with the Thomas Tallis Fantasia, The Lark Ascending, the hymn tunes that VW re-wrote for the English hymnal and the Romania from the Fifth Symphony are the most wonderful expressions of what we hold to be English music. This comes from a devout ATHEIST, but I still love to sing those hymns that I learned at school and I remember an astonishing amount of the words to those hymns. Communal singing is precious, precious experience especially when singing the hymns that VW re-wrote and added the Magic that only he could create in that marvelous mind of his. Thank you Rafe, your gift is priceless.

[@darrenslider9433]

This is the best performance I've heard of this since the 1970 David Willcocks recording. The sound is especially lovely.

[@JontyLeese]

I have to agree with you Darren. Plus seeing the musicians play having mastered their craft is beautiful. Tugs on ever emotion going.

[@jb57utube]

Absolutely agree. Beautiful.

[@shadbolt4687]

Agreed.

[@AndNowLadiesandGents]

Walking along the reed banks of Snape maltings, Suffolk, vaughan is there...💛🌹💜💐❤🌻🧡🌼🌷💝🙏

[@oldedwardian1778]

Agreed, I am from Worcestershire, the home of Elgar, a glorious rural county close by the county of Gloucestershire where VW was born. Considering the awesome beauty of VWs music it makes one think that maybe the lovely name of his birthplace somehow forecast what his music would bring to this sad world. He was borne in the village of Down Ampney, I need say no more.

[@rabbialan]

Another great Vaughn Williams tear-jerker. Listen from 10:30 on and try not to cry.

[@shin-i-chikozima]

Mother My late beloved Mother It seems I am wandering in your memories

[@lizarddronedude3617]

This is the theme song of English countryside for me

[@shin-i-chikozima]

I seem to be wandering in the musical aesthetics of Vaughan Williams

[@christophernunn943]

What an impeccable performance perfect in expression timing and I love it.

[@shin-i-chikozima]

This will quench and moisturize your parched soul, and evoke comfortable feelings and peace of mind

[@Timmmmartin]

If this beautiful work had a more catchy title, perhaps it would become far more well-known than it is.

[@cacambo589]

Such as "I wanna hold your hand."?

[@paulhardman1087]

Breathtakingly Beautiful. 🌼

[@keithchadwick]

I love this performance. Well done to all concerned. 👋

[@helenbingham17]

Beautiful ❤

[@roberthiggins9842]

A beautiful performance by the orchestra. So full of energy and an absolutely lovely to hear. Thank you!

[@stephenrward7795]

Thank you so much. A beautiful way to start the day. (And a tearful one! 😭)

[@c4rol766]

for real

[@OrchestraoftheSwanOfficial]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@271250cl]

Such grace and poignancy!

[@HarmonIAGenerated]

My Godness such a beauty !!!

[@OrchestraoftheSwanOfficial]

Thank you

[@sidpheasant7585]

Godness indeed...

[@andrewtalbot9414]

Wow... gorgeous ❤

[@pdizzle7111]

Wonderful

[@Alex_LionComposer]

Woww!! Stellar performance!

[@benjaminniemczyk]

Brilliantly performed, expressive, flexible and ethereal. The stage smoke is kind of funny though. Reminds me of the old "Orchestra!" series with Solti and Dudley Moore. They made orchestra look cool.

[@fjsmusic-frankjamesstaneck7539]

Beautiful ! So well done, Thank You All for that !

[@arcticfox7599]

Sadness and beauty...

[@sidpheasant7585]

Yes, for most of my life I would have said just that! But since being Born Again I continue to see the (ecstatic) beauty, but I've dropped the nostalgia and sadness. Now this music is more about my today than any yesterday. The trap of the past is that it can never really meet our expectations for it, even as it looks like the greatest of hiding places to get lost in, perhaps forever. But TODAY still has potential, even as the minutes of it pass. For example, I can find your post and spend a few precious minutes well, by writing to you! Who can say what may come of it? And just how invigorating that is!!! RVW-level invigorating.

[@daviddavenport9350]

@@sidpheasant7585 It is all one! All together...

[@robinbarber5291]

Gorgeous music.

[@thomascherney5630]

There there own music director! Not an easy chore!...

[@smrgeog]

Bravo!

[@user-qr2gd7me6c]

No one seems to have noted that this is an arrangement of "Star of the County Down" by the blind Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan. Search for that name and you'll find many renditions. One of my favorites is by Joemy Wilson et al.

[@dougallee7066]

The tune has certainly been used for 'The Star of the County Down' (a nineteenth or twentieth century lyric), but I think it dubious that O'Carolan composed it. Like many British folk tunes it has been coupled with a number of songs (I've always known it used for 'The Unquiet Grave'). As a folk song collector, RVW knew well that it was in widespread use-he re-purposed it for the his Hymnal as a tune entitled 'Kingsfold' (a village in W. Sussex whence he collected it)-and that many variants of it were already sung. Like RVW, O'Carolan may well have played/known or arranged it (for clarsach), but the tune probably predates him.

[@daviddavenport9350]

The tune dates back as far as Henry VII, quite some time before Carolan.....

[@user-eo6qm3pm6i]

The tune is also an Anglican hymn (possibly thx to RVW); and an Irish lament "The Shores of America"; and probably other variants exist as well. This is common in folksong. And this is such a strong hauntingly human tune, it works fast or slow, in joy or in grief.

[@user-eo6qm3pm6i]

Who is the harpist please?

[@OrchestraoftheSwanOfficial]

Hi it's Daniel De-Fry 🎶

[@ivanvarela4741]

I heard the voice of Jesus say

[@Yaamibt]

Éclater

[@ZeneykoFN]

g jurer tas trop raison c mon prof qui ma di de regarder sa

[@bvlvke]

​@@ZeneykoFN j'ai jurer mm moi

[@Yaamibt]

@@ZeneykoFN mdrrrr toi aussi

[@stephenhall3515]

Oddly thin and 'scattered' sounding. Tempi are not as written, there is little sense of true ensemble and intonation is dodgy in parts.

[@daviddavenport9350]

I dont hear it , stephan...I have a doctorate in Music from Indiana U. and I hear a quite beautiful performance....

[@daviddavenport9350]

I dont hear what you hear! And I know this piece quite well and have a doctorate in Music from Indiana University,