EIF LSO Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony Usher Hall 14th August 2025 Review
LSO: Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony at the Usher Hall tonight was one of three major concerts by the orchestra this year as part of their residency at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. This series of concerts also marks the first appearance in Edinburgh of the LSO’s new Principal Conductor-Sir Antonio Pappano.
There were three works on tonight’s concert programme
Maconchy Nocturne for Orchestra
Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
Vaughan Williams Symphony No.1 ‘A Sea Symphony’ (Sung in English with surtitles).
Due to its huge performance time of some 70 minutes, it probably makes sense to start this review with the last, but headliner, work tonight - Vaughan Williams Symphony No.1 ‘A Sea Symphony’. Written for soprano, baritone, chorus and large orchestra between 1903 and 1909, this work is the first and longest of Vaughan Williams’s (1872-1958) nine symphonies. By any means of comparison to other works, this is a large and complex one and even the large performance stage of the Usher Hall was a bit crowded tonight with both the LSO and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus upon it.
“A Sea Symphony” was one of the works that set a new stage for the integration of symphonic and choral music in Britain and it is also one of those works that is best described as a “live performance experience”. Yes you can get the music on CD or the internet, but nothing really prepares you for the sheer audio power of a combined large orchestra and chorus together.
In some ways, this is an odd work as it was helping to create a new era of music when it was first performed, it obviously uses a format that was centuries old, but more frequently used for requiems and masses. “A Sea Symphony” did, however, provide the perfect showcase for Natalya Romaniw (Soprano) and Will Liverman (Baritone) to highlight their talents on this vocally challenging work - talents that were both much appreciated by tonight’s audience.
With four very distinct movements, A Song for All Seas, All Ships, On the Beach at Night, Alone, Scherzo: The Waves, and The Explorers, this huge tone poem’s homage to the sea and the ships and mariners that are always at the mercy of its power, this work somehow captures all of that power of nature and the sheer forces at play upon the seas whilst at the same time putting man into his truly insignificant place in the larger picture of God’s grand scheme for everything. A lot of the sheer power and emotion of tonight’s LSO performance was due to Sir Antonio Pappano and his interpretation of this work.
Opening tonight’s musical programme was a work by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994), a former student of Vaughan Williams, and her 1950/51 work, “Nocturne”. With a performance time of some 7 minutes, this work may be only 10% of the performance time of Vaughan Williams’ epic “A Sea Symphony”, but in this short time it evokes perfectly an almost dreamlike world of the night and offers so many different possibilities of exploration.
Taking up the rest of the first half of this evening’s music was a performance of Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Op.35 (1945) which gave the centre stage spotlight to violinist Vilde Frang. This is obviously a technically demanding work, but it is also one which gives any performer little time to rest and catch their breath as they have few resting moments here. Here tonight, Vilde Frang both impressed this audience and earned all of the applause that she received for her performance.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There were three works on tonight’s concert programme
Maconchy Nocturne for Orchestra
Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Op.35
Vaughan Williams Symphony No.1 ‘A Sea Symphony’ (Sung in English with surtitles).
Due to its huge performance time of some 70 minutes, it probably makes sense to start this review with the last, but headliner, work tonight - Vaughan Williams Symphony No.1 ‘A Sea Symphony’. Written for soprano, baritone, chorus and large orchestra between 1903 and 1909, this work is the first and longest of Vaughan Williams’s (1872-1958) nine symphonies. By any means of comparison to other works, this is a large and complex one and even the large performance stage of the Usher Hall was a bit crowded tonight with both the LSO and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus upon it.
“A Sea Symphony” was one of the works that set a new stage for the integration of symphonic and choral music in Britain and it is also one of those works that is best described as a “live performance experience”. Yes you can get the music on CD or the internet, but nothing really prepares you for the sheer audio power of a combined large orchestra and chorus together.
In some ways, this is an odd work as it was helping to create a new era of music when it was first performed, it obviously uses a format that was centuries old, but more frequently used for requiems and masses. “A Sea Symphony” did, however, provide the perfect showcase for Natalya Romaniw (Soprano) and Will Liverman (Baritone) to highlight their talents on this vocally challenging work - talents that were both much appreciated by tonight’s audience.
With four very distinct movements, A Song for All Seas, All Ships, On the Beach at Night, Alone, Scherzo: The Waves, and The Explorers, this huge tone poem’s homage to the sea and the ships and mariners that are always at the mercy of its power, this work somehow captures all of that power of nature and the sheer forces at play upon the seas whilst at the same time putting man into his truly insignificant place in the larger picture of God’s grand scheme for everything. A lot of the sheer power and emotion of tonight’s LSO performance was due to Sir Antonio Pappano and his interpretation of this work.
Opening tonight’s musical programme was a work by Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994), a former student of Vaughan Williams, and her 1950/51 work, “Nocturne”. With a performance time of some 7 minutes, this work may be only 10% of the performance time of Vaughan Williams’ epic “A Sea Symphony”, but in this short time it evokes perfectly an almost dreamlike world of the night and offers so many different possibilities of exploration.
Taking up the rest of the first half of this evening’s music was a performance of Korngold Violin Concerto in D, Op.35 (1945) which gave the centre stage spotlight to violinist Vilde Frang. This is obviously a technically demanding work, but it is also one which gives any performer little time to rest and catch their breath as they have few resting moments here. Here tonight, Vilde Frang both impressed this audience and earned all of the applause that she received for her performance.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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