Barry Forshaw writes: VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: COMPLETE SYMPHONIES, London Symphony Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Hickox, Andrew Davis/Chandos SACD 6-disc set At a stroke we have the best complete set of Vaughan Williams’ symphonies in astonishingly detailed, impactful Chandos surround sound. There have been several complete cycles of years of Vaughan Williams’ remarkable nine symphonies (beginning with the celebrated Adrian Boult accounts), but one particularly distinguished cycle (the first complete sequence in in surround sound) seemed to be benighted — that inaugurated by Chandos with the late conductor Richard Hickox. Before his death, Hickox committed some powerfully persuasive readings, notably a definitive reading of the original version of the London Symphony, and a blistering account of the muscular Fourth, but his VW sequence was not be completed because of his early death. However, Chandos wisely commissioned Andrew Davis to commit the missing symphonies to disc, and a strong recording of the Ninth (coupled with the ballet Job) was followed by a very persuasive Sinfonia Antartica. Intensely atmosphere, bleak and dramatic by turn, this reading has a breathtaking climax in the landscape movement, in which the breaking of an ice floe is conveyed by a thunderous organ passage. In the surround sound medium, it almost goes without saying that this has never been better done. With the long-awaited concluding entry in Chandos’s historic series of Vaughan Williams symphonies collected in this handsome box, RVW fans need not hesitate.

SHOSTAKOVICH: JAZZ & VARIETY, Singapore Symphony Orchestra; Andrew Litton/BIS SACD  Despite their excitement and exhilaration in the more powerful movements, the image most people have of Shostakovich symphonies is one of seriousness, so it is particularly salutary to look to this reminder of his lighter side, delivered with such panache. Shostakovich was the most versatile of composers: popular and serious styles came to him with equal ease and are frequently found together in the same work. In his twenties, before the heavy hand of Soviet officialdom slapped him down in 1936, music of every kind poured out of him: symphonies, operas and full-length ballets but also a great amount of music for film and theatre. Here Andrew Litton leads the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a programme which explores this lighter side of a composer who is otherwise often regarded as unrelentingly serious. The disc opens with Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1, which Litton conducts from the piano. Consisting of three brief movements, it is the only truly original work on the disc, written in 1934 for a competition aimed at making ‘Soviet Jazz’ more respectable. The remaining suites are all reworkings of existing music, such as the ballets The Age of Gold – about the adventures of a Soviet football team visiting the decadent West – and The Limpid Stream, portraying a group of entertainers visiting an idyllic collective farm. The Suite for Variety Orchestra is a compilation that the composer made in the late 1950s from three film scores, a ballet movement and four piano pieces. Closing the disc is Shostakovich’s 1927 orchestration of a Broadway classic, Vincent Youmans’ Tea for Two, which had become a hit under the title Tahiti Trot.

RICHARD STRAUSS: THREE TONE POEMS: MACBETH, DON JUAN, TILL EULENSPIEGEL, Cleveland Orchestra France Welser-Most/Cleveland SACD  Listeners are becoming familiar with these handsomely packaged collections from the Cleveland Orchestra – particularly in performances as committed as these splendid takes on two of Richard Strauss’s most popular tone poems and a neglected one, Macbeth. Strauss aficionados will have their own favourite versions, but these are delivered with great commitment. Not everyone will welcome the oversized packing, though, the discs and booklet make an attractive package, but are difficult to store with one’s own regular size discs

IRELAND: ORCHESTRAL WORKS, Sinfonia of London, John Wilson/Chandos SACD  It’s a cause for celebration that the Chandos label is giving the conductor John Wilson his head in recording classical repertoire alongside his welcome excavation of the great MGM scores. So far, Wilson has not put a foot wrong in his approach to repertoire, from Respighi’s Roman Trilogy (one of his most sheerly exhilarating discs) to these sometimes under-regarded tone poems by the composer John Ireland. Wilson provides the best possible advocacy for this beautifully orchestrated music, and it might be argued that this one disc contains almost everything – apart from the songs – which is essential to an appreciation of the composer.

TANEYEV: Orchestral Works: Symphonies • Oresteia • Suite de concert, Cantata on Pushkin’s ‘Exegi Monumentum’, John of Damascus, Ilya Kaler, Violin • Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra • Thomas Sanderling/Naxos  If the listener is seeking an alternative to the overfamiliarity of such Russian composers as Tchaikovsky, this attractively priced set will make a welcome alternative. Sergey Taneyev was a monumental figure of late 19th-century Russian music. He was a student of Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, and became teacher to Rachmaninov and Scriabin. Thomas Sanderling’s acclaimed recordings of Taneyev’s symphonies trace a development from the early influence of Brahms to a large-scale masterpiece in the final Fourth Symphony. This collection includes the mammoth overture Oresteia which has all the force of a Romantic symphonic poem, and the sublime cantata John of Damascus in which ancient sacred chant is woven into rich passages of expressive counterpoint.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : A VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ANTHOLOGY: THE LARK ASCENDING, SEA AND LONDON SYMPHONIES,TALLIS FANTASIA, PHANTASY QUINTET, Various Artists/Naxos  More Vaughan Williams – and very welcome, too. While admirers may favour other performances, every take here on the composer’s exquisite scores is more than competitive. This curated selection of works is a measure of RVW’s achievements. As a major 20th-century symphonist he is represented by four of his nine symphonies, all in much-praised recordings, while winning orchestral works such as the celebrated Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending are also included. Vaughan Williams’ chamber works are performed by the Maggini Quartet, his greatest contemporary champions; while the sublime Mass in G minor is a solid addition.