Singing of Spring

Once again this week, a video with little or no discernible connection to the music. Giotto and Vaughn Williams? Who knows?

What I do know is that, when the aforementioned choral conductor turned me on to this piece (commending to me the B-section flute duet), I ran out immediately and found a recording of it. I was so obsessed that I ran it over and over until I could play both parts of the flute duet perfectly.

Most other versions of this piece feel like summer, all cool greens and languid movement in deep shade. This version sings of spring. The lighter, brighter tone speaks of the first, pale green shoots sprouting up from the hard ground. The lively, even skittish, tempo recalls a newborn colt struggling to stand on wobbly legs.

This is Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin In the Fields in Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “Fantasia On Greensleeves”.