Ravel, Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Liza Ferschtman

Liza Ferschtman in The Lark Ascending
Liza Ferschtman's violin flutters, sings and rises ever higher in Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending. With the First World War in the background, the British composer was inspired by a poem by George Meredith. In it, a lark leaves the earth far below in its flight. Ferschtman will be soloing in Vaughan Williams' beloved ode to freedom and hope with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The conductor is the much sought-after Stanislav Kochanovsky.

Ravel and Elgar
Just like Vaughan Williams, Maurice Ravel volunteered to drive ambulances at the front in the First World War. And both left traces of this period in their compositions. In Le tombeau de Couperin, Ravel, inspired by Baroque music, sketches portraits of friends who died in the war. Elgar, too, commemorates loved ones in his Enigma Variations. He takes one melody, which he adapts to all kinds of people around him. At the very end, he gives voice to himself.