The Lark Ascending BBC4

Last night I watched a programme on BBC4 'The Lark Ascending' which gave a brief run-through of the circumstances leading to the composition of this iconic piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams including a performance by Julia Hwang (violin) and Christopher Matthews (piano) as it was originally composed as a duet.  Miss Hwang played this fiendishly difficult piece exquisitely with such maturity and grace it seems unfair to mention in passing that she is only 15 years old. 

The programme was followed with 'The Passions of Ralph Vaughan Williams', a documentary charting the composer's long career (he died in his late 80s) with reference to the relationships that inspired him.  It was an excellent biography illuminating many of his works by describing the circumstances in which they were composed. 

Reflecting on my own formative influences (see Ronald Searle) I should mention the prominence of Ralph Vaughan Williams.  At Junior School we used to have a weekly singing lesson (Miss Dodd at the piano) for which we used his English Folk Song book - greatest hits as far as I can recall 'The Linden Tree' and 'The Lincolnshire Poacher'.  In the late 60s I had aspirations to be a serious folk-singer and still have a well-thumbed copy of the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs which he edited.  I must have sung inumerable times his hymns and some of his choral pieces.  I acquired a copy of 'The Lark Ascending' with, on the same album, the wonderful Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis which is an absolute wonder.  My eldest brother, a great fan, gave me the ballet suite 'Job' for a birthday present and followed it up with the Serenade for Music (words by Shakespeare, music by Vaughan Williams - the perfect evocation of Englishness) and the spell-binding 5th symphony.  All of these are on vinyl so they have been in some way part of the accompnaiment of my life.

The programmes went some way to explaining the appeal of Vaughan Williams as a national composer although his music transcends nationality as all good music does.  The combination of exquisite sweetness and serenity giving way to turbulent storms and flavoured with a slight earthiness convey both the English landscape and its changeability and the national character.  Robert Tear described the composer as resembling a sofa with the stuffing coming out of it (he was very untidy in his appearance).  That's quite a good description of both the man and his music - soft and inviting with a warm spirituality on the surface but with just enough prickly bits here and there to remind you of the less comfortable reality of the human condition underneath.