Part of our upcoming program this weekend, all centered around music concerned with the effects of war, is Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 4 in f minor. The symphony was premiered in April of 1935, and was given its US premiere by the Cleveland Orchestra in December of that same year. Vaughan Williams insisted that the work be regarded as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration. Later, in the ’40s, it became saddled with the foreshadowing of the rise of fascism. While I’m not sure if RVW was just being disingenuous, or if later critics did the work an injustice, it is often seen that composers are immersed in the events of their time, and whatever the zeitgeist of the moment, it will eventually work its way out of their heads and on to the page.
All of that aside, this piece is, in the words of OSO music director Carlos Kalmar “like being hit by a bus”. The sprawling last movement, which comes without pause after the scampering and schizoid scherzo, has some of the toughest passagework that I’ve encountered in a ‘normal’ symphony. At this point in the piece, pretty much every instrument in the orchestra is going apeshit (pardon the expression).
Tickets will be going fast for this weekend’s two concerts: Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Click here for further information and ticket ordering online.