Vernon Handley conducts Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 6

Vernon Handley specialised in British music throughout his career and recorded a complete cycle of the Vaughan Williams symphonies. For a 1984 documentary on Vaughan Williams, he conducted part of the first movement of RVW’s 6th Symphony. The voice of the film’s producer / director Ken Russell can be heard, along with that of Ursula Vaughan Williams, the composer’s widow. Handley’s baton technique was acquired largely by observing that of Sir Adrian Boult, whom he greatly admired and got to know personally.