Williams works If you visit [...] ; Seen & Heard

Williams works If you visit the National Portrait Gallery inLondon make sure you see the wonderfully craggy portrait of RalphVaughan Williams.

He started collecting folk songs in Essex and with a new seriesof programmes on BBC4 on The Symphony starting last week, Irecommend two of his symphonies conducted by Kees Bakels with theBournemouth Symphony Orchestra. They enter a well-representedcatalogue, but these 1996 recordings made in the Wessex Hall, PooleArts Centre have a warmth to them which in no way diminishes thebleakness of sections of both Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony No 7)and Symphony No 8 in D minor. This was a valuable addition to theNaxos range of recordings of British music, and worth gettingwhatever the price (Naxos 8.550737).

Chris Green