Classical Music | Violin Music

Ralph Vaughan Williams

The Lark Ascending  Play

Jessica Mathaes Violin
Daniel Paul Horn Piano

Recorded on 11/21/2012, uploaded on 04/26/2013

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Vaughan Williams composed the first draft of The Lark Ascending in 1914, but laid the work aside during the war for military and medical service. Borrowing the term from Beethoven, he called the work a romance for violin, the title coming from a poem by George Meredith, twelve lines of which preface the published musical score. 

The Lark Ascending was one of the first works Vaughan Williams revised and orchestrated upon his post-war return to composition. The work was dedicated to and premiered by violinist Marie Hall in 1920, along with pianist Geoffrey Mendham. Ms. Hall was again the soloist in the debut of the orchestral version of the work in 1921, which was performed by the British Symphony Orchestra, comprised of professional musicians who had served abroad during the war. The landscape of England is evoked by the sounds of this beloved work, as the song of the lark is exquisitely represented in Vaughan Williams’ distinctive writing for the violin.      Jessica Mathaes