Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on the Old 104th, The Lark Ascending

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, pianist Mark Bebbington, members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, present a recording of the composer’s almost totally neglected orchestral work, Fantasia on the Old 104th, for solo piano, choir and orchestra premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in 1950.

The album also features the Romance for viola and piano; the ever popular The Lark Ascending in the original 1914 version for solo violin and piano; and the early but ambitious Piano Quintet of 1904, which was embargoed untill as late as the 1990s and scored for the same combination of instruments as Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet.