2025 Concert Classics Autumn Concert In Exeter Cathedral

ISCA ENSEMBLE Musical Director Roger Hendy Leader Antony Clements

Khachaturian - Adagio from Spartacus

Hummel - Trumpet Concerto Lance Corporal Richard Ward soloist

Vaughan Williams - London Symphony

Written shortly before the start of the First World War (in which Vaughan Williams served), the London Symphony was dedicated to the composer George Butterworth, whose life was cut tragically short in the war and who had first suggested to Vaughan Williams that he write a symphony; “We were talking together one day” recalled Vaughan Williams “when he said in his gruff, abrupt manner: ‘You know, you ought to write a symphony’”. When listening to the piece it is probably worth remembering that London then was quite different to London now. It was the centre of Empire, and a busy, dirty, noisy place, but it was also without today’s urban sprawl, with the countryside on the doorstep and with transport dominated by horsepower rather than the car. The London Symphony gives us a wonderful glimpse of both sides of the capital of the time.