Now rightfully acknowledged as a towering figure, Vaughan Williams was the first composer to write in the English language, using folksong in the Norfolk Rhapsody, a Tudor hymn in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and absorbing and transforming his influences in the stunningly beautiful Serenade to Music.

During the 16th and 17th centuries England had been a leading participant in the delevopment of European music, but after the early death of Purcell in 1695, music in England came to be dominated by musicians of foreign origin: notably Handel and Mendelssohn. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) is the best-known of a new generation of composers that came after Elgar and made up what became known as the English Musical Renaissance. Along with Gustav Holst, Vaughan Williams travelled the country collecting and preserving English folksong traditions, and was largely responsible for the revival of interest in folksong. So strong was his interest in the subject that, like Holst, folksong was absorbed into his compositional style and was to influence his concert music, giving it a uniquely English quality. Starting with the evocative Thomas Tallis Fantasia, (RVW's look back at his great 16th-century predecessor) this set contains some of the composer's best-known and most-loved music, including the popular Fantasia on Greensleeves and the beautiful Lark Ascending.

Artists

Sarah Chang (violin), Christopher Balmer, Ian Partridge, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, David Willison, Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong, Susan Longfield, Marie Hayward (soprano), Alfreda Hodgson, Gloria Jennings, Shirley Minty, Meriel Dickinson (contralto), Bernard Dickerson, Wynford Evans, Kenneth Bowen (tenor), Richard Angas, John Carol Case, John Noble & Christopher Keyte (bass)

Sinfonia of London, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, Jacques Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Music Group of London, Sir John Barbirolli, Vernon Handley, Bernard Haitink, Sir David Willcocks, Sir Adrian Boult