Editing Ralph Vaughan Williams (section)

==Recordings==
Vaughan Williams conducted a handful of recordings for gramophone and radio. His studio recordings are the overture to ''The Wasps'' and the ballet ''Old King Cole'' (both made in 1925),<ref name=k189>Kennedy (1980), p. 189</ref> and the Fourth Symphony (1937).<ref name=k189/> Live concert tapings include ''Dona Nobis Pacem'' (1936),<ref name=dnp>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-no-5-in-d-dona-nobis-pacem/oclc/185708738&referer=brief_results "Vaughan Williams, Symphony No 5 and Dona Nobis Pacem"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107162123/http://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-no-5-in-d-dona-nobis-pacem/oclc/185708738%26referer%3Dbrief_results |date=7 November 2017 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 18 October 2015</ref> the ''Serenade to Music'',<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/music-in-the-heart/oclc/811454187&referer=brief_results "Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107165356/http://www.worldcat.org/title/music-in-the-heart/oclc/811454187%26referer%3Dbrief_results |date=7 November 2017 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 18 October 2015</ref> and the Fifth Symphony,<ref name=dnp/> recorded in 1951 and 1952, respectively. There is a recording of Vaughan Williams conducting the ''St Matthew Passion'' with his Leith Hill Festival forces.<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/st-matthew-passion/oclc/49038653&referer=brief_results"Bach, St Matthew Passion"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116083406/http://www.worldcat.org/title/st-matthew-passion/oclc/49038653%26referer%3Dbrief_results |date=16 November 2018 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 18 October 2015</ref> In the early days of LP in the 1950s Vaughan Williams was better represented in the record catalogues than most British composers. ''The Record Guide'' (1955) contained nine pages of listings of his music on disc, compared with five for [[William Walton|Walton]], and four apiece for Elgar and Britten.<ref>Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, pp. 164–167 (Britten), 254–257 (Elgar), 786–794 (Vaughan Williams), and 848–852 (Walton)</ref>

All the composer's major works and many of the minor ones have been recorded.<ref name=pg/> There have been numerous complete LP and CD sets of the nine symphonies, beginning with Boult's [[Decca Classics|Decca]] cycle of the 1950s, most of which was recorded in the composer's presence.<ref>Culshaw, p. 121</ref>{{refn|The Ninth Symphony in what became the Decca complete cycle was recorded by [[Everest Records]];<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-9-in-e-minor/oclc/4266659?ht=edition&referer=di "Symphony No 9 in E minor"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701135721/http://www.worldcat.org/title/symphony-9-in-e-minor/oclc/4266659?ht=edition&referer=di |date=1 July 2017 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 25 October 2015</ref> the sessions took place on the morning after the composer's death.<ref>"Death of Vaughan Williams: His last day spent working", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 27 August 1958, p. 1</ref> Decca licensed the recording from Everest for inclusion in a CD set of the nine symphonies in 2003.<ref>Achenbach, Andrew. "Vaughan Williams Complete Symphonies", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', February 2003, p. 49</ref>|group= n}} Although rarely staged, the operas have fared well on disc. The earliest recording of a Vaughan Williams opera was ''Hugh the Drover'', in an abridged version conducted by Sargent in 1924.<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/wasps-overture-old-king-cole-ballet-suite-hugh-the-drover-opera-in-two-acts/oclc/32744608&referer=brief_results "Hugh the Drover"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223075743/https://www.worldcat.org/title/wasps-overture-old-king-cole-ballet-suite-hugh-the-drover-opera-in-two-acts/oclc/32744608%26referer%3Dbrief_results |date=23 February 2019 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 18 October 2015</ref> Since the 1960s there have been stereophonic recordings of ''Hugh the Drover'', ''Sir John in Love'', ''Riders to the Sea'', ''The Poisoned Kiss'', and ''The Pilgrim's Progress''.<ref name=coll>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/vaughan-williams-the-masterpieces-the-greatest-artists/oclc/229056470&referer=brief_results "Vaughan Williams: The Collectors' Edition"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020183815/https://www.worldcat.org/title/collectors-edition-the-masterpieces-the-greatest-artists/oclc/229056470?referer=brief_results |date=20 October 2021 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 18 October 2015</ref> Most of the orchestral recordings have been by British orchestras and conductors, but notable non-British conductors who have made recordings of Vaughan Williams's works include [[Herbert von Karajan]], [[Leonard Bernstein]], [[Leopold Stokowski]],<ref>March ''et al'', pp. 1372 (Karajan), 1378 (Bernstein) and 1381 (Stokowski)</ref> and, most frequently, [[André Previn]], who conducted the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in the first complete stereo cycle of the symphonies, recorded between 1967 and 1972.<ref>Achenbach, p. 40</ref> Among the British conductors most closely associated with Vaughan Williams's music on disc and in concert in the generations after Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli are [[Vernon Handley]], [[Richard Hickox]], [[Mark Elder|Sir Mark Elder]] and [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Sir Andrew Davis]].<ref>Achenbach, pp. 41 (Hickox) and 45 (Handley); and Kennedy (2008), p. 39 (Hickox, Elder and Davis)</ref> Record companies with extensive lists of Vaughan Williams recordings include [[EMI Classics|EMI]], Decca, [[Chandos Records|Chandos]], [[Hyperion Records|Hyperion]] and [[Naxos Records|Naxos]].<ref name=pg>March ''et al'', pp. 1368–1386</ref>