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Sir John Barbirolli heads the Hallé Orchestra for this wonderful programme of the great Ralph Vaughan Williams. The "Sinfonia antartica" was begun in 1949, and composition completed in 1952, with a dedication to Ernest Irving. The music was inspired by Vaughan Williams' scoring of the film, Scott of the Antarctic in 1947, incorporating much of the themes. "The Wasps" is incidental music composed in 1909. It was written for a production of Aristophanes' The Wasps at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Vaughan Williams' first of only three forays into incidental music. Warner Classics releases this stunning recording as part of a brand new series, The Complete Warner Recordings. Spanning over 40 years, these recordings trace the career of Sir John Barbirolli, a conductor of proverbial warmth and generosity, a transformative force in British music and a legendary figure who collaborated with the greatest artists of his time. Shortly before his death in 1970 he completed a Sibelius cycle with the Hallé Orchestra, whose fortunes he had steered for nearly three decades, and among other composers closely linked with his name are Elgar, Delius, Brahms, Mozart, Mahler and Puccini. The wide-ranging contents of this landmark set, which comprises all the recordings Barbirolli made for HMV and PYE. Everything has been remastered in high definition, LP-era recordings from the original tapes, and 78-era recordings from the best available sources.