Ralph Vaughan Williams - Suite for Viola and Orchestra (1934)

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over nearly fifty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

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Suite for Viola and Orchestra (1934)
dedicated to Lionel Tertis

Group I
1. Prelude (0:00)
2. Carol (3:13)
3. Christmas Dance (5:57)

Group II
1. Ballad (7:46)
2. Moto Perpetuo (13:32)

Group III
1. Musette (16:42)
2. Polka Melancolique (20:28)
3. Galop (23:29)

Frederick Riddle, viola and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta conducted by Norman Del Mar
1978

Description by Hector Bellman
Vaughan Williams was fond of the sound of the viola, for which he wrote Flos Campi in 1925. The soloist for the premiere of that work was Lionel Tertis, whose talent lead the composer to write for him this Suite for viola and orchestra in 1934. The suite comprises eight short pieces. The first one is a calm Prelude in neo-bachian style. The second, Carol, is a folksy melody sweetly accompanied by the orchestra. The third is a rustic Christmas Dance. The following Ballad has an almost Finziesque lyricism that for moments brings to mind The Lark Ascending. The fifth is a Moto Perpetuo. The sixth is a Mussette, a languid dance punctuated in the background by a metallophone. The seventh, a Polka Mélancholique, and the eighth, an extraverted Gallop.

• #music
• #viola
• #20th_century
• #england
• #folksongs