Name: Vaughan Williams: A Celebration
Start: 2022-11-17T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2022-11-17T00:00:00.000Z
Location: South Bank Centre

Organization

Conductor

David Hill

Soprano

Elizabeth Watts

Baritone

Roderick Williams

Southbank Centre

Orchestra

Philharmonia Orchestra

Others

The Bach Choir

Vaughan Williams: A Celebration

London

United Kingdom

Royal Festival Hall

Vaughan Williams: A Celebration: Concert Various

Public

Concert

Approved

South Bank Centre

Vaughan williams: a celebration: Concert

Ralph Vaughan Williams holds an unrivalled position in the history of British music, and in the hearts of many classical music fans.

For the Bach Choir, though, it’s personal – he sang in the choir for decades, and was their Music Director in the 1920s.

His overture The Wasps, commissioned for an Ancient Greek play but sounding quintessentially English, paves the way for a rare performance of The Garden of Proserpine.

This work for orchestra, chorus and soprano sets a poem by Swinburne, atheist enfant terrible of late Victorian poetry.

Vaughan Williams clothes Swinburne’s longing for the oblivion of death in music of great tenderness and beauty.

‘Behold, the sea itself’ – once heard, the magnificent opening bars of the Sea Symphony will not be forgotten.

Chorus, baritone soloist and orchestra sing of ships and their captains, wind and waves, ocean voyages and the voyage of every human soul, in music so vivid you can almost taste the sea spray in the air.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Ensemble

Co-Producer