Title: Earnest performance very good sonics
Product review: After the premier of his 8th symphony RVW said he had enough ideas left to occupy him for another ten years. Then he died. He survive World War One at the front, the blitz of World War Two and the second Viennese school of music, only to succumb to the ninth symphony curse. Haitink and the London Philharmonic present a digital era 8th which can stand shoulder to shoulder with Slatkins on RCA or maybe Davis on Teldec, but the chestnut on this disk is the 9th. In the ninth Vaughn Williams used the addition of three saxophones and a flugelhorn which were not allowed to "indulge in the bad habit of vibrato and were obliged to sit up and play straight. Haitink seems to have found the core of this work. Add in the fine quality of the recording and this is a solid pick.
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