A performance to celebrate 100 years

On December 15th 1920 Ralph Vaughn Williams' classical piece 'The Lark Ascending' premiered for the first time in Shirehampton Public Hall, UK. 100 years on it is being performed once more in the same venue.

Performed by the Bristol Ensemble and soloist Jennifer Pike, it was also streamed online in a fitting tribute to both the difficult year we have had and the advancement of technology in the 100 years which have passed.

Ralph Vaughn Williams' classical piece was not only the inspiration behind the name of our English Shrub Rose 'The Lark Ascending' but was also voted the UK's favourite piece in 2020 by Classic FM and Desert Island Discs.

Composed at the start of the First World War, this much loved piece of music depicts the song of a skylark.

'Everything has unconsciously bled into this work – the sense of stillness, a yearning for peace, and Vaughan Williams’s love of the countryside.'

British violinist Jennifer Pike

THE LARK ASCENDING

English Shrub Rose 

Graceful semi-double flowers, of a pleasing apricot, are produced from the ground upwards, and are held in large heads of up to fifteen, nicely spaced blooms. They have a beautiful open-cup shape, loosely filled with about twenty petals, arranged around a cluster of golden stamens. It forms an extremely healthy shrub with tall, airy growth.

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A closer look at The Lark Ascending

 

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