Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Norfolk Rhapsody No.1, The Lark Ascending, In the Fen Country (2003)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 282 Mb | Total time: 77:10 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # 5 85151 2 | Recorded: 1986, 1994, 1997
If there were an international style of conducting Vaughan Williams', Bernard Haitink would be its foremost practitioner. But although there have been international conductors who have taken up Vaughan Williams' very, very English music, virtually all of them took him up with English orchestras. Slatkin, Stokowski, even Rozhdestvensky used English conductors when they led their Vaughan Williams, and Haitink, the most international of international conductors, used the London Philharmonic for his Vaughan Williams. Ultimately, no matter how international Haitink's interpretations may be, his Vaughan Williams performance sounds as English as shepherd's pie.