RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS 1872 - 1958

Ralph  Vaughan  Williams  was  an  English composer, organist, conductor, musical and public figure, collector and researcher of English musical folklore.
His musical compositions include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years.

Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant.  He wrote eight works for stage performance between 1919 and 1951. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet "Job:

A Masque for Dancing" was successful and has been frequently staged.
He was honored with the prestigious Knighthood but declined to accept it. In 1935 he was recognized with the Order of Merit.
His musical compositions are popular in the UK, Russia and many othercountries.

"Portrait of  

Ralph  Vaughan  Williams"

Author Rinat Kuramshin

Ralph Vaughan Williams conducting the Boyd Neil Orchestra. London, 1953

R.V. -Williams and  L. Hancock, conductor of the Covent Garden Orchestra. 1951

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Royal College of Music