THE LARK ASCENDING

BBC Four | Airdate: Friday 13 January 2012 @ 7.30pm (30 minutes)

Part of BBC Four’s British Composer strand The Lark Ascending looks at what just happens to be the UK’s most popular piece of classical music (according to 25,000 radio voters anyway).

In 1914, as Europe approached its darkest moment, English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams produced a short piece of music that was to become the nation’s most popular classical work – The Lark Ascending. Today, the piece represents music for all occasions and is used in rites of passage; births, deaths and marriages and for film-makers looking to create a quintessential English pastoral feel.

Presenter and passionate classical music fan Dame Diana Rigg explores the origins of this ‘romantic rhapsody’ that was composed at a key turning point in world history. She sets out to explore why The Lark Ascending continues to strike a chord with so many people today.

The programme culminates in a beautiful performance of this classic piece by 15-year-old violin prodigy Julia Hwang and pianist Charles Matthews at Shirehampton Public Hall, where The Lark Ascending was performed for the very first time in December 1920.

Contributors include actor Peter Sallis, who wants a copy of The Lark Ascending to be buried with him when he dies; top violinist Tasmin Little, who has played the piece as part of the BBC Proms; and critic, music writer, President of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and personal friend of Vaughan Williams, Michael Kennedy.

Tagged BBC, BBC4, Diana Rigg, Documentary, Peter Sallis