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Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending (BBC Four Sunday 4 June 2023)

Published

4 months ago

June 4, 2023

Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending airs Sunday 4 June 2023 on BBC Four

Mark Wigglesworth, winner of an Olivier Award, leads the BBC Philharmonic in a performance of “The Lark Ascending” from Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending.

The concert will feature two of England’s most progressive and imaginative composers: Sir Edward Elgar with his Symphony No. 2 and Ralph Vaughan Williams with his The Lark Ascending. Richard Wagner’s shimmering prelude to his final music-drama, Parsifal, opens the concert with a mysteriously resonant orchestral ritual.

The Lark Ascending, by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is his most famous composition. It features a solo violin rising above an orchestra, and the music’s aching, avian lyricism, which was inspired by a poem by George Meredith, is seared into the listener’s mind. It was written over a century ago, but it still manages to avoid any sort of musical convention and go straight for the heart. Tonight, conductor Zo Beyers of the BBC Philharmonic will be performing as soloist.

Marie Hall, a violinist who began studying with Sir Edward Elgar at age 10 and was honoured with the composition’s dedication and first performance of “The Lark Ascending,” also studied with Elgar. The concert concludes with Elgar’s Second Symphony. This 50-minute symphony features four movements that are troubled, mournful, violent, and consoling; taken as a whole, the work is a turbulent search for an elusive “spirit of delight.”

Mark Wigglesworth, standing in for Elgar, conducts the BBC Philharmonic in this performance of Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” The work’s premiere was in 1911.

Season 1 Episode 8

Series in which the BBC orchestras and their specially invited guests perform concerts in some of the UK’s most prestigious concert halls.

Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending airs Sunday 4 June 2023 at 20:00 on BBC Four

Featured image credit: BBC Four

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