Proms 2015 Prom 26: British Composers by Walton, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Williams, Grace, Ó (2015/2015), Seoltóir Tadaaki Otaka, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Elgar’s Froissart overture throbs with national pride and swagger, while Walton’s Second Symphony sustains an altogether darker, more contemplative mood. British violinist Chloë Hanslip is the soloist in Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard Concerto accademico – a work whose lyrical slow movement and dancing finale are anything but ‘academic’. The concert also features Welsh composer Grace Williams’s ecstatic, neo-Straussian Fairest of Stars for soprano and orchestra, a musical celebration of Milton’s poetry.