4/5. Widespread misconceptions surround Vaughan Williams and his music. The most commonplace images suggest a tweedy old gent, absorbed by a water-colourist's eye for the gentle beauty of the English landscape. Yet works such as Flos Campi, which are superficially pastoral, in fact are suffused with the ardent longing of the Song of Songs.
Vaughan Williams 's only oratorio, Sancta Civitas, received its first performance during the General Strike of 1926, and can be read as a fervent appeal for a more humane civil society. Donald Macleod assesses the stature of these works within the Vaughan Williams canon. Flos Campi Philip Dukes (viola), Northern Sinfonia, conductor Richard Hickox
Sancta Civitas Philip Langridge (tenor), Bryn Terfel (baritone), Choristers of St Paul's
Cathedral, London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Richard Hickox
Repeated on Wednesday at 12 midnight