Ralph Vaughan Williams - Sea Symphony DVD-A (Naxos DVD)

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS SEA SYMPHONY (DVD AUDIO) for orchestra, chorus and solo voices, set to texts by Walt Whitman, is both a splendid homage to the late Romantic choral tradition of Elgar and Parry, and a forerunner of Britten's Spring Symphony. While overtly descriptive of the sea in its many moods, the work nevertheless marks a radicle departure from precedent. In his desire to free English music from ther Austro-German framework, V-Williams combines high art with folk-inflected music.