01. - 04. Symphony No. 5 in D major [39'40]
05. Sancta Civitas [34'03]
Gareth Roberts- tenor*, Brian Rayner-Cook- baritone*, BBC Singers*, BBC Symphony Chorus* and BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky
BBC Radio Classics BBCRD9125 (recorded October 1980 and November 1979*; CD issued 1995)
(CD-rip; flacs, booklet, back and cover scans)
Recording venue: Royal Festival Hall, London
Recording engineers: not disclosed; Producers: C B Samuelson and Paul Reding*
A friend kindly sent me these files some years ago (not my rip - many thanks to the original ripper). But it came with no documentation at all. Last year, another rip was posted on a private forum and I have 'borrowed' the scans from there and other internet sources.
The friend knew that I had always admired this performance of Symphony No.5, made during Rozhdestvensky's tenure as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony, and that I was disappointed that my out-of-print CD had not survived a house move. As far as I know, a download has never appeared elsewhere on the internet.
For me, this recording of Vaughan Williams' truly war-time symphony is right up there with Barbirolli, Boult, Handley and Manze and is probably the one that I play most often. Only the sound quality, although of a high live-broadcast standard and made at the orchestra's 50th anniversary concert, doesn't match those studio recordings. Nevertheless, much orchestral detail comes through and the sound is superior to Rozhdestvensky's Melodiya recording with the USSR State Symphony.
Although Sancta Civitas is not one of my favourite Vaughan Williams, this is also a brilliant performance, with Rozhdestvensky demonstrating his mastery of choral as well as orchestral conducting.
Download from MEGA.