THE LARK ASCENDING (performed as originally heard)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- The full performance of 'The Lark Ascending' as it was originally heard, for violin and piano, and staged at Shirehampton Public Hall near Bristol where the piece was performed for the very first time in December 1920 - from the BBC4 documentary THE LARK ASCENDING (first shown 13/01/12) presented by Dame Diana Rigg
This is my first Father's Day without my father. My niece had made a 'playlist' that she played to him. She was playing it to him, my daughter was also playing frog sounds - he loved to sit outside, while music played as he listened to nature.
As he died, this is what he was listening to. It felt so appropriate.
I've often thought that's what I'd like to hear as I lay dying. ❤❤❤
Some years ago I was working for an undertaker. We had to do the funeral of a local school teacher. As we carried the coffin out of the church, one of his pupils played this, unaccompanied. She was also about fifteen. It was the only time I was unprofessional enough to have tears run down my face.
Ten years on and I was involved in helping local farmers to encourage skylarks to nest in arable fields. Somewhere in the back of my mind this would be playing as I sat with a powerful 'scope monitoring the birds.
660einzylinder What a beautiful story!
660einzylinder I was listening to this at work but had to stop or I would have been in same state. It's like my heart is resonating to the strings of her violin.
really beautiful.
That's just beautiful - thank you. Where I walk my dogs I hear a skylark every summer. I always just want to lie down and listen forever ❤️
I was an undertaker for 10 years and we had the original played a few times, it will stay with me forever. What it meant to the families of the loved ones past and the recognition of the meaning of this beautiful piece. I come back to it often, even though those day of my career are long gone.
Man, every time I hear this I end up sobbing, its just so beautiful and moving, how can anyone be so gifted as to write something like this?
Im shure Jesus, in his magnificent true love, indpired mr Vaughan Williams!!! I too cry.. missing both my parents.. 😫😭😥😥
How? Years and years of training and divine inspiration. When you can open up and hear the angels sing, then your hands know how to translate what you hear into the written language for others to recreate.
My father’s favourite piece. Played at his funeral 😢
Beautiful.
People remarking on the audience being stuffed or dead are not used to adults able to concentrate on something for longer than a minute without shuffling, talking, or filming on their phones, and lets not forget the bane of all modern live concerts... the completely superfluous, whoop!, or ill timed "we love you!"
the green man
+the green man Perhaps some people are confusing the actual audience with the enlarged b&w photo placed weirdly behind the violinist.
Oh, yes. I heard a performance of this by the North Carolina Symphony. The associate concertmaster was doing the solo part. Some shit-for-brains thought it was a great idea to bring their 2-year old rugrat to the concert, and the little shit acted up most vocally in all the best parts, thus ruining what would have been a pretty good performance. The idiot parents never took the kid out into the hall, either. It pretty well pissed me off.
Well said , you have to be quiet to get something beautiful , i like raucous music , and this , you go to these concerts shut up, behave its not lady gaga . My daighter did fall asleep in oneguitar recital - started snoring , oh dear
I didn't see stuffy people, I saw deeply moved, transfixed people. Some people just ain't got no cultuah.
In case anyone was wondering, that's JULIA HWANG performing. Remember than name; she's headed for fame and fortune with her incredible talent and poise.
Thanks for that, Stuart. The performance title/header at the top of the page is so VERY careful to tell us who the presenter is (some lady named Rigg). But the writer apparently does not consider the names of the performers, violinist and pianist, important enough to share those. Seems odd to say the least. But I am sure it's just me.
Thank you.
Watched David LePage playing this about 10 feet away from me in 2011 in the Sheldonian. Used to help my dad each week who was ill and intended to tell him about it the next week; but he died before i saw him again.
NO WORDS!
I was watching a movie and this composition was in the
background playing so i had to find it in its entirety!
This is the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard. I am always in tears by the end.
When I close my eyes, I can touch that bird, and feel the breeze from it's wing on my face.
There are pieces more magnificent, more dramatic, more epic. Nothing ever written, however, is more beautiful or evocative.
Don Hiorth そうだね‼️素晴らしいよね‼️
Don Hiorth YES
Funny, but Ralph's daughter said he wouldn't recognise a lark if it sat up and bit him, being a city dweller. But, what a glorious tune from England's finest.
We all sit alone at times, feeling the weight of existence, grasping for a glimpse, a glimmer of meaning in a world so heavy. "Am I alive?", we ask. For at least fourteen minutes and thirty two seconds, we can answer confidently from the deepest depth of our soul, "we are!"
❤
Absolutely timeless. I played this once to an ex boyfriend who was going through a really hard time and for the first time in ages I saw a smile, a real smile and glimmer of hope behind his beautiful eyes. i don't know where he is now but i hope it still has the same effect on him when he needs it, just as it does on me... Thank you RVW ♥
I cry sometimes hard when I hear this. The most beautiful piece of music ever designed! And the violinist and pianist were superb!
its beauty shakes me , tosses me around outside myself. i have seldon experienced a piece of music which so deeply moves me.
The orchestra I play in is preparing this piece right now. It's one of the very, very few solo extravaganzas where the accompanying parts are as exquisite as the solo. This rendition is more stark (as close as RVW comes to stark), and in ways allows the soloist a clearer, more commanding presence. Delightfully hair-raising, and an absolute treat. I have to think the audience looks un-animated because they're afraid they'll miss something if they do anything rowdier than breathe. Pretty intimidating setting for the performers, too - up close and personal! Brava.
Lynn Evenson I went to my first orchestral concert recently; I had never realised that Brahms was arranged for "sweet being unwrapped stealthily over the course of three minutes". But then Brahms was an innovator.
Lynn Evenson I think that's what a room full of people who feel humbled in the presence of the tune looks like . There are those few , as to be expected, that are just bodies , their minds and souls elsewhere
Fifteen. Bloody hell. What talent.
David J 驚きです‼️素晴らしいよね‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。Greetings from Japan . Sayonara ！
She is a professional musician now! (Educated at Clifton College, Bristol U.K.).
"What do we do with it?"
"We leave it, for whoever passes through, so they can hear it."
I was flying my spaceship through the Milky Way and picked this up on my radio! I wonder who used to live here?
One of my least favourite Sci fi stories. Clarke's whole concept of this galactic mega intelligence, shutting down civilisations and destroying their planets and all life on them so it can harvest a telepathic generation to incorporate into it's own gestalt is just so wrong! Time to pull out mankind's galaxy buster bomb and wave it into mega mind's face! Clarke did like stories on humanity being forced into futures not of our own making by beings that knew better. He didn't even give Dave Bowman much choice in his destiny.
+Simon Watts Clarke's mega being is just a creative scientist's variation on Jehovah, who damns humans for not conforming to his arbitrary rules. Like Thomas Hardy, Clarke saw a cruel, unjust universe and decided that "God" must be a cruel, self-centered being.
perfection
Peter Matthiesen's "At Play in the Fields of the Lord"
I love my country, from the white cliffs to mountains and and lakes. This music speaks to me of the world we lost in England about 100 years ago. Better or worse; this was England at a point in time that will never return. Lark Ascending brings tears to my eyes.
Completely agree. Vaughan Williams, Elgar and most recently Butterworth (The Banks of Green Willow) all evoke this country for me...
A land of lost content.
The world we not so much lost, but had destroyed before our uncomprehending eyes. Burnt on a pyre of political correctness and Socialism.
@@sapper82
And globalisation/ multiculturalism
Can't we enjoy the beautiful music and our great history without trying to bring politics into it?
"He rises and begins to round
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break
In chirrup whistle slur and shake
For singing til his heaven fills
Tis love of earth that he instils
And ever winging up and up
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine that overflows
To lift us with him as he goes
Until aloft on his aerial rings
In light, then the fancy sings."
Oh, thank you -- I have known the music for over fifty years and never thought to wonder what inspired it! I've just read the entire poem, and it fits so well. Your précis was a delightful introduction.
Beautiful!
660einzylinder -- Thank you so much for posting the beginning of that poem!
I did not even know it existed.
Here is the whole poem:
The Lark Ascending
George Meredith (1828-1909)
HE rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
All intervolv’d and spreading wide, 5
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls
And eddy into eddy whirls;
A press of hurried notes that run
So fleet they scarce are more than one, 10
Yet changingly the trills repeat
And linger ringing while they fleet,
Sweet to the quick o’ the ear, and dear
To her beyond the handmaid ear,
Who sits beside our inner springs, 15
Too often dry for this he brings,
Which seems the very jet of earth
At sight of sun, her musci’s mirth,
As up he wings the spiral stair,
A song of light, and pierces air 20
With fountain ardor, fountain play,
To reach the shining tops of day,
And drink in everything discern’d
An ecstasy to music turn’d,
Impell’d by what his happy bill 25
Disperses; drinking, showering still,
Unthinking save that he may give
His voice the outlet, there to live
Renew’d in endless notes of glee,
So thirsty of his voice is he, 30
For all to hear and all to know
That he is joy, awake, aglow,
The tumult of the heart to hear
Through pureness filter’d crystal-clear,
And know the pleasure sprinkled bright 35
By simple singing of delight,
Shrill, irreflective, unrestrain’d,
Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustain’d
Without a break, without a fall,
Sweet-silvery, sheer lyrical, 40
Perennial, quavering up the chord
Like myriad dews of sunny sward
That trembling into fulness shine,
And sparkle dropping argentine;
Such wooing as the ear receives 45
From zephyr caught in choric leaves
Of aspens when their chattering net
Is flush’d to white with shivers wet;
And such the water-spirit’s chime
On mountain heights in morning’s prime, 50
Too freshly sweet to seem excess,
Too animate to need a stress;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin, 55
The best in us to him akin;
And every face to watch him rais’d,
Puts on the light of children prais’d,
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on sincereness pipes, 60
Though nought be promis’d from the seas,
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment.
For singing till his heaven fills, 65
’T is love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup,
And he the wine which overflows
To lift us with him as he goes: 70
The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine
He is, the hills, the human line,
The meadows green, the fallows brown,
The dreams of labor in the town;
He sings the sap, the quicken’d veins; 75
The wedding song of sun and rains
He is, the dance of children, thanks
Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks,
And eye of violets while they breathe;
All these the circling song will wreathe, 80
And you shall hear the herb and tree,
The better heart of men shall see,
Shall feel celestially, as long
As you crave nothing save the song.
Was never voice of ours could say 85
Our inmost in the sweetest way,
Like yonder voice aloft, and link
All hearers in the song they drink:
Our wisdom speaks from failing blood,
Our passion is too full in flood, 90
We want the key of his wild note
Of truthful in a tuneful throat,
The song seraphically free
Of taint of personality,
So pure that it salutes the suns 95
The voice of one for millions,
In whom the millions rejoice
For giving their one spirit voice.
Yet men have we, whom we revere,
Now names, and men still housing here, 100
Whose lives, by many a battle-dint
Defaced, and grinding wheels on flint,
Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet
For song our highest heaven to greet:
Whom heavenly singing gives us new, 105
Enspheres them brilliant in our blue,
From firmest base to farthest leap,
Because their love of Earth is deep,
And they are warriors in accord
With life to serve and pass reward, 110
So touching purest and so heard
In the brain’s reflex of yon bird;
Wherefore their soul in me, or mine,
Through self-forgetfulness divine,
In them, that song aloft maintains, 115
To fill the sky and thrill the plains
With showerings drawn from human stores,
As he to silence nearer soars,
Extends the world at wings and dome,
More spacious making more our home, 120
Till lost on his aërial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.
The artist laid the work aside
For want of muse yet to inspire
The flight that would from pasture ride
In turning gyre,
To reach that height of heart's desire.
With keys of wood he'd paced the ground
In office top of spiral stair
Until he heard responding sound
Of string under bow,
Released to flow and hover in the air.
Requested, she came
And saw the aim the artist had intended
Setting foot on bottom stair
Rising, rising
Round and round until the work was ended.
And thus the Lark Ascended:
The turning path o'er grounded call.
And thus the Lark was dedicated
To Marie Hall.
Love that Diana Rigg is in the audience. Surely Emma Peel would have appreciated this too. ;-)
Very talented musicians.
And one of the most beautiful pieces ever by a British composer.
Centrist Philosopher そうだね‼️素晴らしいよね‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。
Why the most beautiful by a BRITISH composer.
You MEAN, BY ANY COMPOSER.
the music of the great VW can stand comparison to any other composer who ever lived, no matter their nationality.
@@brit1066 Maybe he didn't write "by any composer" coz he's heard Eugen Cicero play "Exercise"!
I have been a fan of heavy rock music since the 1970's but that was a bit like throwing a stone in a pond and my love of music spread to many genre's. 40 years on and many, many hours of listening down the road, Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending is probably the most special piece I have ever had the joy of listening to. I love the Iona Brown version as a favourite. But this is wonderful rendition and as expected for great performances of this piece, brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing this!
One of my favourite pieces; I can never get sick of listening to this.
Great performance! Good to hear this original with just piano accompaniment.
What a pity Dame Diana Rigg speaks over the opening piano chords!
I have the Album Subito by Julia Hwang & Charles Matthews with it on , i play it a lot in the Observatory .....
I am transformed when I experience this. It is by far a gift to be alive to hear this masterpiece. What a gift our species RVW was. He captures soleminity in this one masterpiece.
Violin and piano, as written - full orchestra is intrusive for this sublime composition. Less is much, much, more.
Everybody in the world should see this. Is there a word beyond exquisite? Sublime?
“Numinous” is a nice synonym for “exquisite” or “sublime”. I feels like “transcendent”, and specifically about mental AND sensory experience. That’s my take, anyway.
Such a beautifully paced and played performance. Both musicians are in total synchronisation, and it shows. The violin sound, so fragile yet full of life and spirit, swoops and sings, like a real free spirit. Doubly moving for me because in that very hall I started my musical training and had my own compositions performed there. Such a lovely, peaceful setting. Many, many, many happy memories. Thanks for uploading.
There is magic in that hall that night , wonderful !
It isn't possible to wish for
any more performance .
There is no dissatisfaction .
I love the simplicity of this rendition
I was studying abroad and i remember i was heading home after a long day traveling the city. There's this long bridge about 20 minute walk and i was the only one walking there while hearing this song.
I live alone and at that time i'm feeling lost, hurt and lonely. When i got home my grandma contacted me and asks for my condition and health, reminding me that she'll always be there caring and loving me. The thoughts of It ease me through.
Because of the pandemic i was sent back to my homecountry and i am blessed to be able to spent almost a year with her until around october 2020 she suddenly passed away without any notice.
Now, listening to this song reminds me of that moment on the bridge, of how i feel so alone and hurting but still knowing that she'll always be there caring. It makes me feel her presence for a moment.
This is just beautiful. I've always loved this piece with the full orchestra (ex. Sir Neville Mariner and the Academy of Saint Martin in The Fields with the legendary Iona Brown on violin) but this is even more exquisite.
This peice of music always makes me cry it's so beautiful,I can just imagine that lark climbing higher and higher in the sky
あなたの素晴らしい投稿に感動しています。
I cried while listening to this masterpiece .
Your contribution is wonderful , excellent , moving .
From Tokyo in your imagination .
Thank-you very much to your wonderful , excellent letter .
So long ！
あなたの素晴らしい投稿に感動しています❗
I cried while listening to this masterpiece .
Your contribution is wonderful , excellent and tremendous .
From Tokyo in your imagination .
Thank-you very much to your wonderful and moving letter .
Vaughan Williams at his best and what a great performance from the young violinist! Piano was beautifully played too! I Love Williams fantasia a theme from Thomas Tallis.
By the fireplace ,
I was hugged by late my beloved mother and listened to this masterpiece .
Memories of a long time ago .
I got old .
I am impressed by her incomparable performance
From Tokyo , with its chaotic and diverse faces .
Incredible piece. Brilliant performance.
RiderXXX そうだね‼️素晴らしいよね‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。
BEAUTIFUL! Awesome talent! The first time I heard this was in Childhood's End--as the commenter Eric Michael posted "What do we do with it?"
"We leave it, for whoever passes through, so they can hear it."
Larry Bannerman そうだね‼️素晴らしいよね‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。Greetings from Japan . Sayonara！
This was a favorite piece of music of a friend of mine who died a few years ago. He made me a mixed CD once and this was on it. I've never been able to find the original one he had, and none of the ones I've listened to since were quite right--this one NAILED it. I cried!
Hazel Rightfield probably like a real Lark ascending, only one person will hear it in the world. Stop your search!
Thats sad that they died
I start loving classical music after I heard these piece by the two performers, thank you for doing that!
What the hell, that was beautiful.
This was played at my beautiful friend’s funeral a week ago.....Lizzy, I shall miss you more than words can express but I will take comfort listening to this wonderful piece.....❤️
Heart-melting
Sublime performance! Close your eyes and see that Lark hovering in the wind over the cliffs edge.
Ralph Vaugham William really reached a divine level on this❤
I love the clip of the LARK ASCENDING.
Devastatingly beautiful. Just takes you away.
Ah, chills, just like it ought
Talent at its purest. Wow.
This is absolutely stunning. I have heard various versions and always been moved by them but not as I am by this gorgeously haunting version. Thank you so much for transcending an old man and putting more quality into life.
I don't often get misty-eyed listening to music, unless it's this GOOD. Thank you, Julia Wang, BBC, et al.!
I first heard this from the movie The Violin, it absolutely took my breathe away.
beautiful
This piece played this way is so much more intimate than the orchestral version.
Quite beautiful! Stunning! What a wonderful life for this super and gifted young lady! Thank you.xxx
just simply wonderful xxxxx.
gives me chills its so gorgeous
+Joanne Kalvaitis Ditto
Joanne Kalvaitis そうだね‼️最高です‼️
Masterful performance, beautifully recorded. It is lovely to see the original idea of the piece! Perhaps the intimate venue setting is also correct for it's premiere performance. Thank you so much for posting this exquisite jewel.
Mark Goldfain そのとうりですよ‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。Greetings from Japan . Sayonara ！
Brave! to the violinist.
Bravo! to the pianist
Bravi! to both.
This piece was on my long run playlists when I was training for marathons years ago. The run, the music, nature, it was a much needed escape.
This young violinist has an exquisite sense！Cheer up ！ I sob with nostalgia.
Music this beautiful makes you freeze to absorb every note, every sublime emotion. You have to let go and let it wash over you.
You hear it-- SOOOOO much love for this little Lark #HeardAndFelt #GodFoundAComposer ))) #Love
In a world where humans can be so cruel......we're capable of such beauty........
Her play gives comfort and solace , and melts person,s anxiety and suffering , and purifies person,s stray mind .
Beautifully said
@@georgealderson4424 ありがとう❗お便り感謝しています‼️さようなら‼️
Thank-you very much to your best reply
Take care of yourself
Good luck 😄
Someday please come to Japan
@@shin-i-chikozima 💜
@@georgealderson4424
ありがとう❗お便り感謝しています‼️さようなら‼️🍎
@@shin-i-chikozima Thank you for your message What dors it mean please?
Absolutely Stunning my favourite ❤️
Mesmerising
Julie Burton そうだね‼️最高です‼️素晴らしいよね‼️さようなら。長いお別れです。さようなら。Greetings from Japan . Sayonara ！
What a beautiful performance!! Brava!!
Thank you, Master.
Great performance! I hope they record a studio version of this arrangement. I've been wanting one in my collection for a while.
There is an old tune for harp that starts very much like the second motif in this wonderful piece. Knowing what a thorough and amazing depth of musical knowledge RVW had, I love this version so much more. Great playing and a most enjoyable post!
This piece of music has always reminded me of the English country side and has provided me with a great deal of inspiration in the past. I sometimes create a narrative for it similar to how I've done for Gustav Holst's The Planets & Richard Strauss' Thus Sprach Zarathustra. In this piece, it's easy to imagine the main melody being one of struggle and ascension. As in a baby Lark trying to fly for the first time and struggling to fly like the other chicks but eventually entering the fold. But yeah, that's my two cents. One of the greatest pieces of music of all time that seems to go neglected outside of the UK and to those ignorant of concert music.
Such a soothing & peaceful feeling rushes all over me every time i hear this , sweet harmony! She is definitely concertmaster she hits them notes perfect 👌🏼💥
So pure that it salutes the suns
The voice of one for millions
In whom the millions rejoice
For giving their one spirit voice.
I have listened to this piece of music countless times. I wish I had taken up an instrument when I was younger, although I could never play this beautifully. Bravo.
We were treated to this on BBC 4 on Friday evening(11th Dec. 2020).
Always a joy to hear when i am feeling down!
Hope the young lady lives her dream.
This is just outstandingly beautiful!
BEAUTIFUL, JUST SO BEAUTIFUL Stirs all the senses and touches your soul tothe core.,if music be the food of love, then give me more of it.
Beautiful work Bravo!😊💯
I can smell the new mown hay-a wonderful combo/divine
amazing , superbe interprètation , bravissimo
Wonderful. I wish someone could upload the whole of this documentary.
Beautiful. Gave me chills listening to this ♥ ♥
Always makes me cry, just stunning thank you so much for sharing :))
Hypnobunny1 あなたは心優しい人ですね‼️素晴らしい❗ありがとう。さようなら。長いお別れです。Greetings from Japan .Sayonara ！
Just amazing, the music and the musiciens.For me the most moving interpretation I have even heard! Bravo!
Just amazing.
A skylark of the poetry of Meredith given an immortal life by splendid composition of Vaughan Williams ,
please eliminate the fear and anxiety of Covid - １９from the world due to this splendid performance she plays with exquisite skill and beautiful attire .
From
Tokyo of the Land of the Rising Sun 🇯🇵
Beautiful lady, beautiful music. Been living abroad for sometime this piece of music always brings me back to my green and pleasant land.
Just Wonderful.....
Beautiful.....
one of my heart touching soul
Played as good as any well known violists! The sound is so pure without audible artifacts by someone only 15 year old 👍👍👍👍👍
What a beautiful, moving performance! Now I have to choose between this original version and the orchestral one. Tough choice!
How can one comment on perfection...
Easy-just go,"Hmm,dat woz purrrrr-fection!!".
I think you just say “thank you” for the experience
Please listen to this piece of beauty, played perfectly, maybe, whilst watching the sunrise, a bird, even a lark may come your way. A wonderful moment, made complete by George Meredith, & Ralph Vaughan William. Thank you
It was ... perfect ...
Remarkable, beautiful, enchanting, uplifting, exhilarating.
.
I walk the white river
through the lush valley
not with feet but eyes
what mountain power
I saw a WW1 documentary film with this music and it had a special way of bringing history to my heart.
My soul is in the grassland of vast extent undulating in the wind .
What a beautiful piece! Thanks for the video.
Mauser 本当に素晴らしい演奏です。さようなら。長いお別れです。Greetings from Japan .Sayonara！