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John Wilson leads the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Philharmonic in Nottingham for this illustrated introduction to Vaughan Williams’ music.

Wilson is joined by broadcaster Stephen Johnson who explores the Sixth Symphony with live musical excerpts, before a complete performance of both pieces.

Wilson, a devotee of Vaughan Williams, reveals two sharply contrasting sides to the British composer’s work. One of Vaughan Williams’ earliest works displays his fascination with folk song; In the Fen Country is tinged with echoes of Delius and evokes the East Anglian countryside.

It’s a far cry from the ferocity that the Sixth Symphony unleashed in 1948. Although the composer was quick to dismiss speculation that it was a reflection of the years of conflict that preceded it, and the nuclear threat that they initiated, there’s no denying the tension in this post-war masterpiece, whose opening movement rampages across an unforgiving landscape. The sense of threat is at its highest in the ominous slow movement before a demonic scherzo gives way to a desolate Epilogue.