A Sea Symphony

The Royal Choral Society and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returned to Winchester Cathedral to perform some of the greatest music of the twentieth century. In the opening of A Sea Symphony, Vaughan Williams, guided by Walt Whitman’s evocative poetry, hurls us into a world which magnificently reflects the power and drama of the ocean: ‘Behold the Sea itself, and on its limitless heaving breast, the ships’. The final movement ends as if disappearing over the horizon like a great ship: ‘O farther sail’. The concert included Elgar’s evergreen and much-loved Enigma Variations, his colourful portrayal of some of his close friends and the evening began with the full-scale orchestral version of Parry’s coronation anthem I Was Glad.