Vaughan Williams Today
Programmes, concerts and features celebrating Vaughan Williams's 150th anniversary.
Photo above courtesy of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust
Vaughan Williams Today continues ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 3’s celebrations marking 150 years since Ralph Vaughan Williams’s birth. Special programming throughout October explores the life and music of one of most cherished figures in British classical music.
Programmes include: Afternoon Concert throughout the week of the 150th anniversary, featuring the music by the composer, his friends and those who influenced him in recordings from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Orchestras and performers around Europe; a series of Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts live from the Oxford Lieder Festival, featuring some of the UK’s finest young singers in music by Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries; Drama on 3 – People Everywhere Will Sing, focusing on the composer’s life after the death of first wife Adeline; Early Music Show with Hannah French exploring Vaughan Williams’s fascination with music of a bygone age; and The Essay – Vaughan Williams: Belonging, a five-part series where five writers not normally associated with classical music (Clare Shaw, Amanda Dalton, Rommi Smith, Adrian McNally, and Luke Turner) discuss a specific example of Vaughan Williams’s work to which they have a personal connection. And in Sunday Feature: An Unconventional Teacher, music historian Leah Broad explores Ralph Vaughan Williams’s legacy as a teacher and champion of women composers.
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Discovering Vaughan Williams
Listen to programmes examining the life and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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The Early Music Show: Vaughan Williams and early music
Hannah French explores Ralph Vaughan Williams's love for Bach and early English composers, including highlights from his unique recording of Bach's St Matthew Passion.
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Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams - musical time travel
Tom Service explores Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, one of Vaughan Williams's most spellbinding pieces of music.
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Sunday Feature: An Unconventional Teacher
As part of this year’s 150th anniversary season, music historian Leah Broad explores Ralph Vaughan Williams’s legacy as a teacher and champion of women composers.
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Composer of the week: Vaughan Williams
As part of Radio 3's season marking the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams's birth, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at one of the UK's most significant musical figures.
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Afternoon Concert: Vaughan Williams – Symphony No 6
Martyn Brabbins conducts the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra in a new recording of Vaughan Williams's Sixth Symphony, plus music by the composer's influences and contemporaries
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The Essay; Vaughan Williams – Belonging
Five writers and artists not normally associated with classical music, discuss a specific example of Vaughan Williams’ work to which they have a personal connection, and why it speaks to them.
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Afternoon Concert: Holst, lifelong friend
Daniel Harding conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in The Planets by Gustav Holst, a lifelong friend of RVW.
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Afternoon Concert: Vaughan Williams 150 – Ravel, teacher
Afternoon Concert celebrates Vaughan Williams and friends, with Martha Argerich at the Granada Festival playing music by his teacher Ravel.
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Choral Evensong
Live from Gloucester Cathedral on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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In Tune
Katie Derham presents a special edition of In Tune dedicated to the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, born 150 years ago today.
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Vaughan Williams 150: Purcell, inspiration
Sofi Jeannin conducts the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Singers in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, one of the English composers most admired by Vaughan Williams.
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Vaughan Williams 150: Symphony No 8
Martyn Brabbins conducts a new recording of Vaughan Williams's Eighth Symphony with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra.
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Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending in Building A Library
In Building a Library, Kate Kennedy chooses her favourite recording of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending.
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Sound of Cinema: Vaughan Williams and film
As part of Radio 3's Vaughan Williams anniversary celebrations, Matthew Sweet looks back on the composer's attitude and response to film and film music.
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Opera on 3: Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress
As part of the celebrations marking the Vaughan Williams 150th anniversary, another chance to hear the renowned English National Opera production of The Pilgrim's Progress.
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Sunday Feature: Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On
Simon Heffer journeys through the landscape of the Sixth Symphony by Vaughan Williams to uncover the impact of the period in which the work was composed.
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Drama on 3: People Everywhere Will Sing
By Sarah Wooley. After the death of his wife, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is determined to live life on his own terms. Starring Oliver Ford Davies.
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Record Review Extra
Hannah French offers listeners a chance to hear at greater length the recordings reviewed and discussed in yesterday’s Record Review, including the recommended version of the Building a Library work, Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending.
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Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Perspectives on Vaughan Williams (1)
Mezzo Kathryn Rudge and pianist Sholto Kynoch perform songs by Quilter, Vaughan Williams, Browne, Howells and Lehmann, live at the Oxford Lieder Festival.
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Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Perspectives on Vaughan Williams (2)
Bass William Thomas and pianist Anna Tilbrook perform songs by Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Boulanger and Poldowski, live at the Oxford Lieder Festival.
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Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Perspectives on Vaughan Williams (3)
Soprano Ailish Tynan and pianist Libby Burgess perform songs by Parry, Rebecca Clarke, Stanford, Judith Bingham and Vaughan Williams, live in Oxford.
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Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Perspectives on Vaughan Williams (4)
Tenor Alessandro Fisher, the Navarra Quartet and pianist William Vann perform songs by Vaughan Williams and the world premiere of a new work by Ian Venables, live in Oxford.
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Music Matters
Tom Service presents a Vaughan Williams special to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.
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Free Thinking: The Tudor Mind
Experts explore the Tudor mind through art, portraiture and poetry, and debate Vaughan Williams's take on the Tudors.
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Between the Ears: The Lark Descending
Vaughan Williams's most famous piece reworked and reimagined in music and field recordings.