A profoundly English masterpiece, if all of your emotional machinery is working properly, this piece is guaranteed to cause anything from goosebumps to tears.
Vaughan Williams’ music is very distinctive–another example of his inspiration includes the well-loved The Lark Ascending. Both of these piece share a strong reliance on beautiful strings textures, as well as underlying pentatonic harmonies and motifs.
The piece begins, appropriately, by stating the lovely theme. As the theme is developed, the principle players are featured in solos, including prominently, the violist. The growling lower strings cascade with the bright and evocative upper strings to produce an effect that cannot fail to summon up images of the lovely English countryside, in whose homeland this was written.
The climax of the piece, approximately ten minutes in, is almost brutal. Sung at the upper limits of the highest string instrument of the orchestra’s range, it dashes any hope of maintaining dignity for the audience member who has not yet succumbed to the mistiness building behind his eyes.
And that’s ok!


