After 100 years, the Lark returns to Shirehampton

On December 15 1920, Shirehampton Public Hall was host to a remarkable and perhaps unexpected premiere. The well-known and greatly loved classical piece The Lark Ascending, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, had its first performance at the hall.

With the aid of online streaming, that auspicious event is now being recreated on Tuesday evening, exactly one hundred years later.

Beautiful, lilting and evocative of the English countryside, The Lark Ascending was regarded as evoking both nostalgia for the time before the war and hope for a better future.

It has stood the test of time and topped a poll conducted by the BBC when the public were asked to choose their own Desert Island Discs in 2011.

Bristol Ensemble and the Exultate Singers rehearsing the Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols at Shirehampton Public Hall. Photo – Judith Odgen

It was Vaughan Williams’ friendship with Philip Napier-Miles of Kings Weston House which resulted in the piece’s connection to the area.

“Napier-Miles was very into his music,” says Norman Routledge, who until earlier this year was the owner of Kings Weston House.

“Napier-Miles was a composer and a patron of the arts. He put some money into Shirehampton Public Hall so that it was a venue where music could be played. His friend Vaughan Williams came to stay with him – and finished, I believe, composing the work at Kings Weston House.”

Vaughan Williams first visited the hall in 1913  and had many works performed there, several of which he conducted himself.

The Lark Ascending was originally written for violinist Marie Hall, a former pupil of Elgar. She was considered one of the great instrumentalists of the Edwardian era. Hall collaborated with Vaughan Williams on the composition and he dedicated it to her.

The piece’s premiere in December 1920 was staged by the Avonmouth and Shirehampton Choral Society, which had recently reformed post World War I.

The Lark Ascending is better known as an orchestral work but the 2020 performance will take the same format as the original: a solo violin with piano accompaniment. Violist Jennifer Pike MBE and pianist Helen Reid will take the parts originally played by Marie Hall and Geoffrey Mendham.

Violinist Jennifer Pike. Photo – Arno

Performing the piece now, in the midst of a global pandemic, feels particularly poignant to violinist Jenifer Pike.

She said: “I feel a deep connection to The Lark Ascending, a piece that means so much to so many, having spent much of my life performing it. I am honoured to bring it to this historic stage 100 years on from its premiere, and at a time when music is needed more than ever.”

Trustee Edyta Lang and the team at Shirehampton Public Hall have been determined to go ahead in some form and have been working with experts to ensure everyone’s safety. Due to having to maintain social distancing the performance is being recorded on the evening before and Bristol libraries, who occupy part of the same building have been very helpful in lending their space to make social distancing possible, she says.

The evening includes Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins BWV 1043, Parry’s Choral Song Jerusalem and the festive Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, both originally performed in the 1920 concert.

The performances feature the Bristol Ensemble, Bristol’s only professional orchestra, with soloists Roger Huckle and Simon Kodurand for the Bach Concerto. The orchestra will also be joined by a consort of singers from Exultate Singers.

The re-staging of the performance has been a long time in preparation and has had to be revised due to Covid-19 restrictions. The performance will be streamed from the hall for an audience to enjoy from home via the Bristol Beacon website.

“We’ve been talking for a long time about how to celebrate such a special piece of music and its unique connection to Bristol,” says Todd Wills, artistic director at Bristol Beacon.

“We’re so pleased that despite the challenges, we have been able to work with Shirehampton Public Hall and Bristol Ensemble to perform this concert in its original setting – which is a very special achievement.”

The premiere of The Lark Ascending was 100 years ago in Shirehampton. Photo – Shirehampton Village Hall

The performance will be streamed to view at  www.bristolbeacon.org/lark-100, on Tuesday, December 15 at 7:30pm.  The steam is free to view but a donation of £10, which can be made via the website is suggested to cover costs.

Mary Milton is reporting on Sea Mills as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a pilot project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media

Main photo by Bristol Beacon

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