This new adaption and arrangement of Richard II - Incidental music for a radio production of William Shakespeare's play brings Vaughan Williams's music alive to a new audience. Although the composer prepared an extensive score - having written approximately 25 minutes of original music scored for an orchestra with a full complement of brass and percussion - the BBC radio production never materialised. Richard II: A Concert Fantasy masterfully stitches together the majority of the original 34 incidental music cues into a 17-minute suite for concert performance.
Ralph Vaughan Williams is recognised as one of the major musical figures of his time. He began his career as a folk song collector, music editor of The English Hymnal (1906) and founding conductor of the Leith Hill Festival—a post he maintained for over fifty years. Vaughan William's vast musical output includes song settings, symphonies, chamber music, opera and choral music. At the heart of his creativity lie a sequence of nine symphonies that move from meditative pastoral music to themes of existential dramas.
