Something soothing today - from the melodic side of Vaughan Williams. Namely, his The Lark Ascending, Violin Concerto and Serenade to Music. None of them are my favourites - I prefer his more angsty stuff and for string virtuosity, I favour Flos Campi, but they're all wonderful.
I have a difficult relationship with The Lark Ascending. It's transcendently beautiful, but I struggled for years to play it, and never succeeded. More widely, it's been stolen by Classic FM and allied types as 'easy', 'smooth' and ultimately English, none of which are true (VW was a lefty troublemaker to some extent). Strip away the crap and you have an astonishing piece of work: the halcyon days of an idyllic country before World War One ended the Edwardian paradise. The Violin Concerto has a bit more grunt to it - there's misery and passion in there all right.
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