Visions of England

Think of Vaughan Williams and you probably think of the English countryside – that much-loved lark ascending into blue Cotswold skies, or the deep stillness of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. But there’s a lot more to this great British master than just tranquillity, and in Vaughan Williams’s 150th birthday year, guest conductor Andrew Manze champions the astonishing Ninth Symphony: music of visionary power by an 86-year-old master with an unquenchable spirit. In between, Daniel Pioro plays Tom Coult’s new Violin Concerto: four utterly individual landscapes, painted in ‘bewitchingly original’ music. VW would have approved.