Fantasia on Greensleeves (Vaughan Williams)

Movements

Notes

Vaughan Williams once commented, “The art of music above all arts is the expression of the soul of the nation”. In this delightful piece, he manages to capture the very essence of England in music. The serene, pastoral sounds evoke images of bucolic bliss, with lyrical string writing and particularly descriptive flute passages. The title of Fantasia is in some ways misleading: the work is neither long enough nor complex enough to deserve the description; instead, it is a rather faithful setting of the original.

Performances