Faber Music is proud to publish a set of new definitive editions of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Wasps Suite and Overture, offering fresh insight into one of the composer’s most beloved orchestral works.
Originally composed in 1909 as incidental music for Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy The Wasps, Vaughan Williams’ music has since taken on a life of its own. The new Faber Music editions of the Suite and Overture produced in association with the Vaughan Williams Foundation have been carefully prepared with reference to multiple sources and include extensive editorial notes.
Of these five movements, the Overture is a particular concert favourite. Buzzing noisily into life with stinging trills and scales, it subsides into beautiful folk-inflected melodies and lilting sections, before reaching its boisterous conclusion.