Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé champion Vaughan Williams’s neglected oratorio Sancta civitas – an ecstatic vision of post-apocalyptic salvation. It’s a piece made for the huge space of the Royal Albert Hall, where its heavenly trumpets and choirs can swell to full force.

Described by Elgar’s wife as ‘vast in design and supremely beautiful’, his Second Symphony took a while to win public affection, but is now almost as cherished as Debussy’s evocative tone-poem depicting the lascivious thoughts of a sleepy faun – a work the composer Pierre Boulez has hailed as signalling the beginning of modern music.

Debussy
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 11’

Vaughan Williams
Sancta civitas 35’

interval

Elgar
Symphony No. 2 in E flat major 57’

Robin Tritschler tenor
Iain Paterson baritone

Hallé Youth Choir
Trinity Boys Choir
Hallé Choir
London Philharmonic Choir
Hallé
Sir Mark Elder conductor