Hallé returns with a disc of Vaughan Williams in works chosen to illustrate the full range of colour and highly accomplished playing of the award winning ensemble under its Musical Director, Sir Mark Elder.

Latest release for award winning label in the English repertoire at which it excels. Features Hallé Principal Oboist Stéphane Rancourt as soloist. The London Symphony and Oboe Concerto were both personal favourites of the composer and contain some of his finest writing.

Vaughan Williams claimed that the Symphony should “stand or fall as ‘absolute’ music” but, as Michael Kennedy says in the authoritative note which accompanies the disc, in this work direct references to “street cries, the Abbey chimes, the Cockney’s mouth-organ and accordion, are raised to the level of great art.“

The Concerto for Oboe and Strings contains virtuosic writing for the soloist, against exquisite string writing, in a work whose early material derived from sketches the composer had prepared for the Scherzo of his 5th Symphony.