The Lark Ascending

Inspired by a poem by George Meredith, The Lark Ascending is a rhapsodic evocation not only of the song of the skylark but also of the cool colours and gentle contours of the English landscape as the bird rises and hovers above it. The solo violin part is most poetically written, its arching line and elaborate figuration suggesting both the fluttering flight of the lark and the “chirrup, whistle, slur and shake” of its song. The orchestra is concerned more with sustained melody but it too breaks into birdsong from time to time just as the violin turns to folk song at the climax of the work, the two elements together forming one of the essential images of British music.

An early version of The Lark Ascending was completed in 1914 but it was revised in 1920 and first performed in London only in 1921 when, “dreaming its way along,” according to the critic of The Times, it “showed serene disregard of the fashions of today or yesterday.”