Ralph Vaughan Williams “The Lark Ascending“ (1914/1921)

The Aorangi Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sarah Bisley Schneider, Joella Pinto (violin) Recorded live by Franco Viganoni in the Auckland Town Hall, New Zealand on November 20th 2016. Vaughan Williams served in the Great War, volunteering when it broke out, although he was already 42. He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and after training was posted to France. Echoes of his service there sound through the slow movement of his masterly Pastoral Symphony. He was transferred to Salonika, and then back to France. He detested the phrase ‘officers and men’. When accepted as an officer candidate, he told the board he would regret ceasing to be a man on becoming an officer. In 1908 Vaughan Williams had gone to Paris to acquire ‘a little French polish’ from his younger contemporary, Ravel, and evidence of his success may be found in the London Symphony. That work was first given in March 1914. The Lark Ascending was also composed before the war, and like the symphony revised after it. A favou