Vernon Handley 1930-2008
Posted in Classical on Oct 2nd, 2008 No Comments »
Rather belatedly I found out that the conductor, Vernon Handley died a little over a fortnight ago. There is a link here with my previous post, on the death of Bernadette Greevy. They made a studio recording Elgar’s ‘Sea Pictures’ together in the early 1980s which the Penguin Record Guide described as “the performance of her recording career in an inspired partnership with Vernon Handley.”
In a long career Handley was a remarkable interpreter of British music. He took over the mantle of Sir Adrian Boult in this respect. Here, in memory of him, is Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, in the version for chorus and orchestra. He is conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, in a recording made in 1990.
“Soft stillness and the night become the touches of sweet harmony.”
