Overture to the Wasps [Alf:00-23367]

Shortly after returning from Paris where he had been studying orchestration with Ravel, the 36-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams was invited by Cambridge University to compose incidental music for their 1909 production of Aristophanes' great satire "The Wasps." He set about to create a score that contained an impressive array of beautifully orchestrated character pieces to accompany the play.