Hampshire Choral Society presents American premiere of new RVW work

Until recently, though, one major symphonic work by [Vaughan] Williams had gone missing. Though the work was pivotal to his career, it had only ever been seen by a handful of people, experts had never heard of it, and, since it was never performed, no one—including the composer—had ever heard it played.

The piece is about 40 minutes long and requires four soloists, an eight-part chorus of 150 voices and a full orchestra. It’s not the kind of thing that can be mounted on a whim. Unlike a long-lost track that got dropped from an album or was only recorded as a demo, this music has only ever been an idea, and for over a hundred years, no one had bothered to consider it.