Top 10 Vaughan Williams albums
Gramophone
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
The 10 best ways to discover one of the great symphonists of the 20th century
Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending and Tallis Fantasia are amongst the most popular works by any British composer, but it is in his nine symphonies that we feel the true substance of a composer who was far more than a mere painter of beautiful scenes.

A Sea Symphony
LPO / Bernard Haitink
(Warner Classics/EMI)
'A breathtakingly good recording in all respects' Read review

A London Symphony
LSO / Richard Hickox
(Chandos)
'Quite simply, an essential purchase' Read review

A Pastoral Symphony & Symphony No 4
LPO / Bernard Haitink
(Warner Classics / EMI)
'Interpretations of great intelligence' Read review

Symphony No 5
LSO / Richard Hickox
(Chandos)
'An urgently communicative reading' Read review

Symphony No 6
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis
(BR-Klassik)
'An outstanding and very welcome disc' Read review

Sancta Civitas
The Bach Choir, Bournemouth SO / David Hill
(Naxos)
'Responsive to the beauty and the terror' Read review

String Quartets
Maggini Quartet, Garfield Jackson va
(Naxos)
'They clearly love this music deeply' Read review

The Lark Ascending
Tasmin Little vn BBC PO / Sir Andrew Davis
(Chandos)
'A feast of works for violin and orchestra' Read review

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
BBC SO / Sir Andrew Davis
(Warner Apex)
'Ravishing string sonorities' Read review

Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus'
LSO / Richard Hickox
(Chandos)
'Heart-warming, lucid and nicely flowing' Read review
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