Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending

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Arts Documentary hosted by Tom Service, published by BBC in 2023 - English narration

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Inside Classical: The Lark Ascending comes from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and features the BBC Philharmonic conducted by the internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor Mark Wigglesworth. The programme features two visionary and radical works by English composers - Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 2 and Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. The concert opens with a mysteriously resonant orchestral ritual by Richard Wagner: the shimmering prelude to his last music-drama work, Parsifal. Ralph Vaughan Williams' most beloved piece, The Lark Ascending, features a solo violin soaring over the orchestra, and the music's aching, avian lyricism - inspired by George Meredith's poem - sears itself into the imagination. More than a century after it was written it still flies free of musical convention, straight to the heart. The soloist tonight is the BBC Philharmonic's leader, Zoë Beyers. The Lark Ascending was dedicated to and first performed by the violinist Marie Hall, who also studied under Sir Edward Elgar from just 10 years old. And it's Elgar's Second Symphony that is the finale for the concert. The four movements of this 50-minute-long symphony are troubled, grieving, violent, and consoling: the whole piece is a turbulent search for an elusive ‘spirit of delight'. Elgar conducted the premiere in 1911 and Mark Wigglesworth steps into the composer's shoes with the BBC Philharmonic for this performance.