Channel 5 (UK) Documentaries

O Thou Transcendent - The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams (2008x2)

: 01, 2008

Made at the behest of the Vaughan Williams Trust, this documentary features specially recorded extracts from all the Symphonies, Job, The Tallis Fantasia, The Lark Ascending, Pilgrim's Progress and Greensleeves, and contains in all over ninety minutes of music with surprising contributions from John Adams, Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention, Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys, Tony Benn, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Tippett, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Mark Anthony Turnage and Harrison Birtwistle. Tony Palmer writes: "...My intention is not a hagiography. it is simply this: to explode for ever the image of a cuddly old Uncle, endlessly recycling English folk songs, and to awaken the audience to a central figure in our musical heritage who did more for us all than Greensleeves and The Lark Ascending, who deserves his place among the greatest of British composers, the equal of Benjamin Britten and Elgar..."