Sir John in Love: the forgotten Falstaff

John Bunyan's allegory occupied Ralph Vaughan Williams for a lifetime, culminating in the 1951 stage work, premiered at Covent Garden. Roy Westbrook follows the composer's progress...

Often dismissed on account of its popularity, The Lark Ascending divides audiences... and players. Our own Kevin Ng is a violinist and avoided it for years, but took advice from three violinists when adding it to his repertoire. 

Ralph Vaughan Williams' nine symphonies represent one of the peaks of creative achievement in British culture. Enthusiast Chris Garlick takes us on a musical journey through the cycle.

How does this work by Vaughan Williams, an agnostic who composed hymns and was inspired by church music, cast its spell over audiences?

When Igor Stravinsky left Europe for life in America in 1939, his flight was due to more than the impending war. Three generations of his family had died within six months and his neoclassical works no longer met with universal admiration from influential critics. 

“Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look of course – the first of many love-affairs in that direction – but it was a look in the mirror too.”