Hyperion Records Spotify Launch - Round 1

The Beatles: Capitol US albums and notable compilations, as Spotify playlists

Meet the Beatles! (1964)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/0vk5yPXEMhpn90XmEBinvu

The Beatles' Second Album (1964)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/6bRVod9igviPr9GccXpEA0

Beatles '65 (1965)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/0R5F7OZVqUgLtbK8YL3jvy

The Early Beatles (1965)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/6DWdROtMm0tKHJ4BxTxtU7

Beatles VI (1965)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/0wJV1svsndXx5PVHwYDtKQ

Yesterday and Today (1966)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/1Tq51PcnruMFzXKvCWCq7j

Hey Jude (1970)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/36Wqc8CHgMY8DyO6atxYGA

Love Songs (1977)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/0xLMAroue6F2VjoblTQklF

Rock 'n' Roll Music (1977)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/4qq2rNy6jErLX3JWvS67Jp

The Beatles Ballads (1980)

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/2lIbAaZKDRe4UjDWGkU5YE

Yellow Submarine Songtrack 1999

https://open.spotify.com/user/ulyssestone/playlist/6NZwFEoioFOO6lF22tbiv9

Cover art from Wikipedia.

Spotify Composer Weekly

Updated every Monday. 30 tracks from 30 works.

https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/024GOC1aaJzcF0YrTGdeSu

Browse all previous playlists on this user profile:

https://open.spotify.com/user/composerweekly

All The Best New Classical Releases in 1 Playlist

https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/4gWfh2NYhzzJ9NGP9D9fHE

Peaceful Choral Music: 50 tracks from 50 living composers

The playlists are coming back, for real this time.

In the past 2.5 years I've spent most of my time on fundamental metadata issues that made the streaming experience (for classical and other music) often not as pleasant as it should be. We are still not there yet, and I'm aware of the issues that still bother classical fans: long track title readability, especially on mobile; no composer column (though composer is displayed as first artist at track level for classical content); search could be lacking for aficionados and overwhelming for classical newbies. They are not forgotten. It just takes more time to fix 30m tracks delivered by tens of thousands of labels in different formats (and constantly updated), than fixing a personal music library.

From now on I will also spend some spare time on playlisting. Hope you enjoy the first effort. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Some Improvements

1) No playlist and no regret.

2) Classical composer/artist names have been normalised. I counted 284 different spellings of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and 23 names of Choir of King's College, Cambridge. Thousands of duplicate classical artist pages have been merged. You can search for Rachmaninov and still find Sergei Rachmaninoff (also try CPE Bach, DSCH).

3) Composers' pages start to make sense. The Popular section (which used to be playground for spammers) now becomes a nice introduction for casual listeners. See Robert Schumann:

And the discography is easier to browse now without all the "Tender Classical For Study" stuff. Leonard Bernstein and Benjamin Britten are good examples.

Can you guess which composer page was this?

It was Gabriel Faure. But it could just as well be any other composer, since they all looked like that.

Now the page is slightly more useful, with the wonderful Stephen Cleobury – Fauré: Requiem & Messe Basse at the top.

There's still so much to improve, but the below 50 composer pages are already great starting points for people who want to get into classical music or explore a bit more. Comparing to these changes, all the playlists I've done before are really nothing.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Béla Bartók
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hector Berlioz
Georges Bizet
Johannes Brahms
Benjamin Britten
William Byrd
John Cage
Frederic Chopin
Aaron Copland
François Couperin
Claude Debussy
Guillaume Dufay
Antonín Dvořák
Gabriel Faure
Giovanni Gabrieli
George Frideric Handel
Franz Joseph Haydn
Unknown Artist
Orlande de Lassus
Franz Liszt
Guillaume de Machaut
Gustav Mahler
Felix Mendelssohn
Claudio Monteverdi
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Johannes Ockeghem
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Sergei Prokofiev
Giacomo Puccini
Henry Purcell
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Maurice Ravel
Gioachino Rossini
Domenico Scarlatti
Arnold Schoenberg
Franz Schubert
Robert Schumann
Dmitri Shostakovich
Jean Sibelius
Johann Strauss II
Richard Strauss
Igor Stravinsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Giuseppe Verdi
Antonio Vivaldi
Richard Wagner

Enjoy and share the music.

More than 40,000 classical albums from Naxos now have composers displayed for every track

Philip Lane – English String Miniatures, Vol. 6

Lincoln Trio – Notable Women

Various Artists – Music for the Zombie Apocalypse

Richard Craig – inward

Barokksolistene – London Calling

This also applies to Pentatone, Ondine, New Amsterdam, and all labels distributed by Naxos. Check out the list here.

Help testing the new classical radio

A small percentage of users now get revamped classical radio. Try it here: https://play.spotify.com/radio/genre/classical Use the skip button to flip through a few tracks.

If you only see soundtracks and greatest hits from not-so-great compilations and less than 10 composers, you are still on the old radio. Please ignore it like you did in the past few years.

If you see a wide range of selections from respectable labels, then play on. The more you listen, the more users will get the new version.

Your feedback will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Composers are now displayed for the Harmonia Mundi catalog

For those of you who already followed my Harmonia Mundi - hmGold Series playlist, it might take a while before the composers appear in the desktop client. In web player everyone should see the composers now.

2014 New Classical Releases Index (Collaborative Playlist)

Thanks everyone for updating the 2011, 2012 and 2013 New Classical Releases Indices. Let's do it again in 2014 and hopefully next year you won't have to use a playlist to browse the newly recorded/released classical albums of the year.

Same rules as before:

1. One track per album. You can click album titles and browse full albums.

2. Add new tracks at the top of the playlist, so the new additions can be found easily.

3. Please avoid duplicated entries. Use the filter bar to check before adding. For example: before you add Daniel Barenboim – New Year's Concert 2014 / Neujahrskonzert 2014, you can press Ctrl (CMD) + F to bring out the filter bar, input partial title (like Barenboim or new year's concert) to check if the album has already been added.

4. Only add newly recorded albums. No re-issues, re-packages or compilations of previously released material.

Get the regularly updated 2014 classical catalog in one Spotify playlist here: 2014 New Classical Releases Index (No reissues or compilations).

Guest Playlist: Frank Zappa's Musical Evolution

Guest post from Kris Herbst:

I assembled this playlist of 401 Zappa tracks that, for me, represent his best and most accessible musical compositions (omitting tracks where I find the musical quality is secondary to comedy bits or commentary):  Frank Zappa's Musical Evolution (401 tracks, 19 hours).

To provide a sense of the progression of Zappa’s musical ideas and development, I have arranged the tracks in chronological order, based on when they were first recorded or performed, rather than by release date, with help from the discography and timelines in this site: http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/index.html.

I have grouped together alternative recordings of the same piece, in chronological order, always beginning with the first instance of a piece, followed by alternate recordings of that piece, and then followed by guitar solos from that piece, also in chronological order of performance. This groups recordings of guitar solos (which Zappa often released at later times, as separate pieces, with different names) with the piece in which they were originally performed.

Suggestions to improve it are welcome: kris at globalweb.org.

A little info about me: I became a Zappa fan in 1969, at the age of 13, when I was turned on to the "We're Only In It For The Money" album by my Boy Scout troopmaster. Two years later, I went to my first Zappa concert, when the band included Flo and Eddie and Ian Underwood. Listening to Zappa helped open my mind to exploring a wide range of music, especially jazz. I saw Zappa in concert once more, in 1974, fronting one of his best bands that included Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ruth Underwood, George Duke and Don Preston on keyboards, the Fowler brothers (Bruce, Walt, and Tom on trombone, trumpet, and bass, respectively), Jeff Simmons on guitar, and Ralph Humphrey and Chester Thompson on drums.

Thanks Kris, I look forward to listening to more Zappa using this playlist.

To all the Zappa fans: you can also check out my Zappa as Composer playlist, and follow the revamped Frank Zappa artist page (all albums have the correct original release year now, instead of the 2012 remaster year like in all other music services), so you will get notifications when the Zappa Family Trust makes his posthumous catalog available digitally.

Harmonia Mundi - hmGold Series in 1 Spotify Playlist

"harmonia mundi has earned a reputation as one of the most important classical music labels with their emphasis on the highest quality both in performances and sound. The Gold series is an assemblage of cornerstones in establishing that reputation - a collection that contains innumerable gems." - from Classics Online.

"Described by the New York Times as 'one of Europe’s finest independent record companies', harmonia mundi’s origins date back half a century when, in 1958, a French journalist with connections to the book trade, Bernard Coutaz, decided to found his own publishing house for music. A year later the label had released its first recording, Chants From The Slavonic Liturgy.

The largest independent producer of classical recordings in France, the artist roster for harmonia mundi reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of classical music superstars. With ensembles including The Academy of Ancient Music to Trio Wanderer, Al Ayre Español to Theatre of Voices, Les Arts Florissants to Tokyo String Quartet, artists such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Andrew Manze, Kent Nagano, Dorothea Röschmann, Andreas Scholl, Andreas Staier and Alexandre Tharaud, leading chamber groups, choirs, orchestras – the list is virtually endless and covers most musical periods and classical genres.

You can read more about the history of Harmonia Mundi and watch a video clip of its founder Bernard Coutaz here." - from Presto Classical.

Get this collection in 1 Spotify playlist: Harmonia Mundi - hmGold Series (1788 tracks, 117 hours). A sampler album is placed at the beginning. 3 double-disk samplers of Baroque, Romantic and Choral Works can be found at the end. Some longer than 10 minutes tracks are unavailable at this moment, but it should be fixed soon. More info on the recordings available on the official site, Arkiv and Music Web.

In addition to those listed in the intro, you can also follow these excellent HM artists: Paul Lewis (his widely acclaimed Beethoven recordings have finally become available on Spotify), Isabelle Faust, Richard Egarr, Paul Hillier, Paul O'Dette and Anonymous 4, so you will get notifications for their new content.

Enjoy the sound of harmonia mundi.

DG: The History Of Classical Music On 100 CDs (or 1 Playlist) - From Gregorian Chant To Górecki

Introduction from Presto Classical:

OVERVIEW

• It starts with Gregorian Chant and Machaut chansons and ends with Gorecki and the Minimalists.

• The greatest composers have as many as five CDs devoted to them (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven).

• 20th-century music is well represented with no fewer than 20 CDs.

• Operas and major choral works are represented by highlights, but otherwise the edition presents, as far as possible, only complete works throughout.

• Altogether, there are more than 80 composers in the set, with over 400 works for a total of around 120 hours of music.

REPERTOIRE

As the box is intended for the non-expert, the repertoire is centrally based around the Classical and Romantic composers.

Here's the rundown:

CD 1 – 20 take us from Gregorian Chant to the sons of Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, with the great names of the Baroque – Monteverdi, Purcell, Charpentier, Rameau, JS Bach, Handel and Vivaldi all featured.

CD 21 – 33 are devoted to the Viennese Classics: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

CD 34 – 49 cover the early Romantic composers, from Schubert, Paganini, Berlioz, Chopin to Liszt and Schumann.

CD 50 – 69 comprise the later Romantics – Brahms, Bruckner, Dvořák, Grieg and Tchaikovsky, plus Verdi and Wagner highlights.

CD 70 – 78 bring together turn-of-the-century composers, including Mahler, Debussy, Richard Strauss and Puccini.

CD 79 – 100 includes 20th-century masterworks from Stravinsky to Messiaen, Boulez and Gorecki, taking in Holst, Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Ives, Janacek, Ravel and many others on the way.

HIGHLIGHTS

It reads like a cornucopia of the great, good and glorious. Look out for:

• the Orlando Consort’s forays into Gregorian Chant and Machaut;

• John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach;
• Minkowski’s Charpentier and Rameau;
• Trevor Pinnock’s Handel and Vivaldi;
• Karajan’s Creation;
• Anda’s Mozart Piano Concertos;
• Beethoven at the hands of Bernstein and Karajan;
• Rossini with Abbado;
• Chopin and Liszt Concertos with Argerich;
• Fischer-Dieskau’s Schubert and Schumann;
• Barenboim’s Chopin Nocturnes;
• Gilels’ Brahms Second Piano Concerto;
• Kubelik’s Dvořák;
• Mravinsky’s Tchaikovsky “Pathétique”;
• Karajan’s Mahler Five;
• Kleiber’s La Traviata highlights;
• Abbado’s Ravel, Prokofiev and Stravinsky;
• Boulez’s Schoenberg and Webern
• the Messiaen Turangalila Symphony and Gorecki’s Symphony no. 3!

—————————————

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: DG - The History Of Classical Music - From Gregorian Chant To Górecki (1388 tracks, 115 hours). More info on the official site. A few tracks are missing due to transcoding issues; they should be fixed soon.

My previous playlist 1200 Years of Women Composers: From Hildegard To Higdon is a good companion since no female composer was included in this DG set.

To navigate huge playlists more easily: 1. select the playlist, 2. press Ctrl (CMD) + F, or scroll up in iOS, to bring out the filter bar, 3. type in composer/performer/composition, e.g. Bizet or Abbado or Carmen.

We Love Music

My dear readers,

Please forgive my absence for the most time of the year, and allow me to share some positive news with you, regarding this blog/app, Spotify, and classical music.

I started to work at Spotify since the beginning of 2013, in the Content Operations team. That was the sole reason I could no longer find any time for making and sharing playlists, which occupied most of my spare time between December 2009 and January 2013. There were times that I tried to finish a playlist (there's more than 100), but soon I realized I wouldn't have enough time to do it properly - the Mozart playlist alone took me more than 15 hours. Looking back it amazes me that more than 300 playlists, which I feel comfortable to share, were finished in the past few years.

Instead I immersed in work, with the same enthusiasm as when I was an outsider. Working with all these remarkably talented and passionate music lovers made me a even bigger Spotify fan, and everyday I feel grateful that I can contribute to one of the greatest projects in music history: to make more people listen to more music, and pay for music every time it is played. I cannot get into details at this moment, but you will probably notice the difference that I made with the team, when you look at Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane or the splendid London Symphony Orchestra pages. Most importantly, after one year of work, I can confidently say that we are now in a good position to act responsibly to the new problems that have accompanied the rise of streaming, address the root causes, and become everyman's best music service for classical and all music.

(Never thought I could appear on the same page with Ludde,
the creator of Spotiamp and tons of other great stuff)

In 2014, I will try to share some new playlists, at least more often than this year, and feature more guest posts from classical labels and music makers. If you want to share playlists, or your thoughts on how can Spotify improve for classical music, please drop me a line at SpotifyClassical at gmail dot com. I won't be able to reply to everyone in time but I will do my best.

I wish you all a merry Christmas and hope you enjoy even more great music in 2014.

Music is the best.
Ulysses

Lutosławski Centennial - Complete Chronological Catalogue on Spotify

"One of the 20th-century's great symphonists, Lutoslawski created an impressive, always progressing body of music in the most difficult of circumstances. As the commander of a military radio station, he was captured by the invading Germans at the beginning of World War II. He escaped, and survived the occupation by playing piano duos in Warsaw cafes, including his Variations on a Theme of Paganini. In 1949 his Symphony No. 1 was the first Polish work to be denounced as formalist by Stalinist cultural politicians. In reaction, Lutoslawski wrote public works based on folk material, while continuing to develop a more personal language privately. In the cultural thaw following Stalin's death, Lutoslawski became a major international figure, renowned for innovations in form and performing techniques and a consistently eloquent personal voice." - LA Phil

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Witold Lutosławski - Complete Chronological Catalogue (187 tracks, total time: 12 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Program notes here.

Happy 100th birthday.

Tan Dun - Chronological Discography on Spotify

"The conceptual and multifaceted composer/conductor Tan Dun has made an indelible mark on the world's music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical, multimedia, Eastern and Western musical systems. Central to his body of work, Tan Dun has composed distinct series of works which reflect his individual compositional concepts and personal ideas — among them a series which brings his childhood memories of shamanistic ritual into symphonic performances; works which incorporate elements from the natural world; and multimedia concerti. Opera has a significant role in Tan Dun's creative output of the past decade, mostly recently with the premiere of The First Emperor by the Metropolitan Opera in December 2006 with a title role created for Plácido Domingo. In 2008, Tan composed Internet Symphony No. 1: "Eroica" commissioned by Google/YouTube as the focal point for the world’s first collaborative online orchestra. Recent works include Piano Concerto: The Fire for Lang Lang and the New York Philharmonic; Violin Concerto: The Love, for soloist Cho-Liang Lin, and Earth Concerto for Ceramic Percussion and Orchestra. Of his many works for film, Tan Dun’s score for Ang Lee's film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, received an Oscar Award for best original score. His music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer, Inc." For a complete biography, click here.

Image source: The Guardian

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Tan Dun - Chronological Discography (158 tracks, total time: 13 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Check out his official site and AllMusic for list of recordings and introductory articles. Also see my previous playlist for a sampler of Chinese-born Composers.

Wigmore Hall Live Series on Spotify

"In October 2005, the Wigmore Hall, London, UK, became the first concert hall to launch its own record label: Wigmore Hall Live, building upon the venue's existing reputation as a recital hall established early in the 20th century. One of the aims was to bring the musical programme to a wider audience. In the 2011 Gramophone Awards, Wigmore Hall Live won the special award: Label of the Year.

Before launching the label, state-of-the-art recording equipment and comprehensive sound insulation had to be installed. These improvements led to the Soile Isokoski disc (recorded live in 2006) receiving a Gramophone Award nomination." - Wikipedia

Get 53 of the 55 releases in one Spotify playlist: Wigmore Hall Live series (1249 tracks, total time: 83 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Albums are arranged by release date. Maybe because the label uses difference distributors for Europe and US, some album have two copies for the two markets. The US "version" is not available in Europe, and vise versa. I included both copies so every user can find the one available in their region.

See Presto Classics and the official site for album list and introduction.

Wagner's Vision - Bayreuth Heritage on Spotify

"This 50-CD set is released to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner, and is an outstanding sound document of the history of the Bayreuth Festival during the first half of the 20th century. The collection includes music from all operas authorised by Wagner for performance in Bayreuth. To complement the edition, scenes and solo titles out of the decades of the festival direction of Cosima, Siegfried and Winifred Wagner are included. They go back to the festival summer of 1904 and communicate impressions from important and famous performances until 1943.

Recordings from New Bayreuth of the Wagner grandsons Wieland and Wolfgang lead to the newest era of the festival. All performances on the 50 CDs are original recordings from Bayreuth and are directed by Siegfried Wagner, Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Victor de Sabata, Karl Muck, Herbert von Karajan, Clemens Krauss, Joseph Keilberth, Hans Knappertsbusch, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Lorin Maazel and André Cluytens – a role call of some of the 20th century’s greatest conductors." - introduction from The Wagnerian

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Wagner's Vision - Bayreuth Heritage (311 tracks, total time: 34 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. All available titles listed here are on Spotify. More reviews and discussions. For Complete Wagner, see my previous playlist.

2013 New Classical Releases Index (Collaborative Playlist) + 2012 New Soundtrack Releases

Two days into 2013, there are already 46 new classical albums on Spotify, ranging from Lisa Batiashvili's Brahms violin concerto, to a new recording of Rzewski's modern masterpiece The People United Will Never Be Defeated. To search and browse all the new releases more easily, you may want to subscribe to this 2013 New Classical Releases Index. It is a collaborative playlist and everyone can help to update it. A few rules to keep the playlist neat and useful:

1. One track per album. You can click album titles and browse full albums.

2. Add new tracks at the top of the playlist, so the new additions can be found easily.

3. Please avoid duplicated entries. Use the filter bar to check before adding. For example: before you add Peter Maxwell Davies – Maxwell Davies: Piano Concerto - Worldes Bli, you can press Ctrl (CMD) + F to bring out the filter bar, input partial title (like Davies piano) to see if the album is already in the playlist.

4. Only add newly recorded albums. No re-issues, re-packages or compilations of previously released material.

Get the regularly updated 2013 classical catalog in one Spotify playlist here. Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

Thanks ferrisc for helping to update the 2012 playlist (which has 1521 albums by now). He has compiled a wonderful 2012 New Soundtrack Releases playlist that includes John Williams's Lincoln, Jonny Greenwood's The Master, Howard Shore's The Hobbit and dozens more.

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Complete Chronological Catalogue on Spotify

"One of the leading English composers of his generation, Vaughan Williams was a pupil of Parry, Charles Wood and Stanford, and later of Bruch and Ravel. In his work as a composer he went some way towards creating a specifically English musical idiom, influenced by his interest in folksong but coloured by his own personal vision and language.

Stage Works

The stage music of Vaughan Williams includes the Shakespearean opera Sir John in Love (based on The Merry Wives of Windsor), the masque for dancing Job, and The Pilgrim's Progress. Incidental music for the theatre includes music for The Wasps by Aristophanes, from which the overture is often heard. He also wrote a number of film scores.

Orchestral Music

Symphonies

Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, the first A Sea Symphony for solo singers, chorus and orchestra (with words taken from Walt Whitman), the second A London Symphony, and the third Pastoral Symphony. The Sixth Symphony, completed in its first version in 1947, seemed to break new ground and was followed by a seventh, the Sinfonia antartica, that had its origin in a film soundtrack.

Concertos

Compositions by Vaughan Williams for solo instrument and orchestra include the pastoral romance The Lark Ascending for solo violin and a Concerto accademico for solo violin and string orchestra. There is an attractive Oboe Concerto and two concertos unusual in their solo instrument: one for harmonica and the other for bass tuba. Flos campi uses a viola and is scored also for small choir and chamber orchestra.

Suites etc.

Vaughan Williams made direct use of folksong in, among other works, his three Norfolk Rhapsodies, his Fantasia on Greensleeves for solo flute, harp and strings, and his English Folksong Suite for military band. His Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for two string orchestras returns to the 16th century for its musical inspiration.

Choral and Vocal Music

Vaughan Williams made a substantial contribution to English choral and vocal repertoire in compositions that include the fine Serenade to Music, completed in 1938. Other compositions range from hymn tunes to an oratorio, from folksong arrangements to the evocative On Wenlock Edge, a setting of poems by A.E. Housman.

Instrumental Music

Vaughan Williams wrote relatively little chamber music and even less music for piano. His organ pieces, however, provide a few useful repertoire items.

Theatre and Film Music

The incidental music Vaughan Williams provided for the theatre was principally for a series of Shakespearean productions in 1913, when he was musical director at Stratford-upon-Avon for Sir Frank Benson's company. From 1940 onwards he provided music for a number of films." - Introduction from Naxos

This playlist was compiled after the work list on AllMusic (sorted by year), plus a few works that are not listed there, like the Bucolic Suite, and Dark Pastoral. Different editions and arrangements by the composer are also featured: 1920 version of A London Symphony,  2008 edition of Symphony No.5, original version of Symphony No.6 (premier recording by Stokowski), original version of The Lark Ascending (for violin and piano), the composer's arrangement of his pupil Patrick Hadley's Fen and Flood, and more. The Wasps are presented with the popular suite, and the complete incidental music (about 100 minutes). The lovely Serenade To Music comes in three versions: 16 soloists, 4 soloists, and orchestra alone. At the end of the playlist there are some recordings of the composer's speeches, and a excerpt from his funeral service.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: Ralph Vaughan Williams - Complete Chronological Catalogue (755 tracks, 55 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

Vaughan Williams arranged many English hymns and carols, you can press Ctrl (CMD) + F and input hymn, or carol, or Christmas, to look for seasonal music in this playlist.

Happy holidays.