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Tony Palmer Film — O Thou Transcendent: The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Multi-award-winning director Tony Palmer returns to the Barnes Music Festival for the tenth time to present his film about Ralph Vaughan Williams whose 150th anniversary of birth is celebrated this year. The first ever full-length film biography of the great composer features many of those who knew and worked with him, including the Gloucester Cathedral Choir, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha, and archive performances by Boult and Barbirolli. The film also contains newly discovered interviews with Vaughan Williams himself, specially recorded extracts from The Symphonies, Job, The Lark Ascending (with Nicola Benedetti) and The Tallis Fantasia, and with unexpected contributions from Harrison Birtwistle, John Adams, Richard Thompson, Mark Anthony Turnage, Barbara Dickson, Michael Tippett and Neil Tennant of The Pet Shop Boys.

“A wonderful film, the reference point for decades to come” Michael Kennedy