Symphony No. 5

Cartoon of Vaughan Williams conducting Symphony No. 5

Some of the themes of Vaughan Williams’ Fifth Symphony had originally been composed as part of his opera, The Pilgrim’s Progress; but in 1938 it seemed to him as though the opera would never be completed, and so the themes became incorporated into the symphony.

Although the work is dedicated to Sibelius, there is little in the music which suggests the Finnish composer’s music: Michael Kennedy writes that, although the music epitomises what might be called 'the Englishness of English music', the attentive listener to the scoring will not fail to notice the influence of Ravel, with whom Vaughan Williams studied in 1908.

The slow movement is closest in style to the eventually completed Pilgrim’s Progress, and the work as a whole is a move away from the dissonance of the previous Fourth Symphony back to the more romantic style of the Pastoral Symphony.

See Symphony No. 5 live:

Sun 2 November 2008, 3:00pm
Royal Festival Hall, London (find out more)

Tue 8 July 2008, 8:00pm
Chichester Cathedral, Chichester (find out more)

Wed 9 July 2008, 7:30pm
Truro Cathedral, Truro (find out more)