A London Symphony

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A London Symphony is the second symphony composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Vaughan Williams said that while the title may suggest a programmatic piece (and the work includes sounds to be heard in London such as the Westminster Quarters), it was intended to be heard as absolute music, and he suggested that "Symphony by a Londoner" might be a better title. However he allowed the conductor Albert Coates to provide elaborate descriptions for the 1920 performance.

Vaughan Williams did not number his symphonies as he composed them (he referred to them only by title or key) until the appearance of the Ninth, which is in the same key as the Sixth. At that point he assigned numbers to them, beginning with the F minor, in order to avoid confusion. The first three are as well known by their titles as by their numbers.

The symphony is in four movements.

1. Lento — Allegro risoluto
2. Lento
3. Scherzo (Nocturne)
4. Andante con moto — Maestoso alla marcia — Allegro — Lento — Epilogue

The symphony was composed from 1912 to 1913 and was first performed on March 27, 1914 at Queen's Hall, London, England, by conductor Geoffrey Toye. The performance was a success, but shortly thereafter the score was mislaid after being sent to the conductor Fritz Busch in Germany one month before the outbreak of World War I. The composer reconstructed the score from the orchestral parts and it was performed with some revisions in 1915 and 1918. The symphony was revised several more times over the years (with its first edition published in 1920), and reaching its final version in about 1936 (the publisher is unsure). The symphony is dedicated to Vaughan Williams's friend George Butterworth who died during World War I.

It is now possible to hear the first version of this symphony on the recording conducted by Richard Hickox with the London Symphony Orchestra, recorded in 2000 for Chandos. The composer's widow only released the 1914 orchestral parts for this recording, and it is unlikely that concert performances of the first version will occur again in the near future. Although the final version (1936) of the symphony is undoubtedly a better, more tightly-constructed work, there are a number of fascinating passages to be heard in the original.