麻豆社

14 June 1921. The Queen鈥檚 Hall, London. This quiet midsummer鈥檚 evening saw the first performance of a work that would become one of the most consistently popular pieces of classical music ever written.

Ralph Vaughan Williams had composed The Lark Ascending seven years earlier, in 1914. The war intervened, and Vaughan Williams had to wait seven years to hear his meditation on a poem by George Meredith performed by an orchestra.

It was eventually performed by the British Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult, with the dedicatee of the work, Marie Hall, taking the swirling improvisatory sounding violin solo. One critic wrote: "It showed supreme disregard for the ways of today or yesterday. It dreamed itself along".

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by 麻豆社 Radio 3鈥檚 Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a 麻豆社 season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This 麻豆社 archive recording features soloist Elena Urioste performing with the 麻豆社 Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Alexandre Bloch.

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