I’ve
noticed that in France British composers remain relatively unplayed.
One of my favourites is Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). This is
one of my best-loved pieces, Fantasia
on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,
composed in 1910. It is inspired by Thomas Tallis’s original
melody, Williams
often
drawn to the music of the Elizabethan era. Tallis was an English
Renaissance composer (c. 1505-1585). The theme recurs three times
over the course of the piece, lasting around 17 minutes in this Proms
festival concert version. Williams’ music here and elsewhere
expresses real depth of emotion, perfectly contained:
Here
is another remarkable, moving
pastoral piece,
The Lark Ascending,
played here
by
the violinist Hilary Hahn at
the George Enescu Festival. This
version was premiered in 1921, inpired by George Meredith’s 122
line poem about the skylark. Williams imitates the particular flight
of the bird, with the sudden bursts of energy in its stages of
ascent. It is refreshing to reconnect to this kind of delicacy of
feeling:
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