Flying high, Lark Ascending is our favourite again

AFTER being pushed down to third place a year ago, The Lark Ascending has regained the title of Britain’s favourite piece of classical music.

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s 15-minute work has returned to No 1 on the Classic FM Hall of Fame poll after being displaced last year by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2.

The composition was inspired by a poem of the same name by George Meredith. In 1914, Vaughan Williams created a version for violin and piano and six years later completed the more recognisable orchestral version.

The composer, who died in 1958, features eight times on the radio station’s 300-strong list. His Fantasia on Greensleeves and English Folk Song Suite both achieved their highest rankings of No 68 and No 69, respectively, while Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis reached No 4. More than 110,000 votes were cast in the 24th edition of the annual survey.

Classic FM’s Alan Titchmarsh said of The Lark Ascending: ‘It has everything you want in a piece of music.’ He added: ‘It has a fine melody that you can remember and it has an image that you can relate to. It’s a piece that speaks of home and if you just let yourself go for that 15 minutes that the lark is ascending, it’s one of the greatest things in life.’