Ralph Vaughan Williams after Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli are Vernon Handley, Richard Hickox, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Andrew Davis. Record companies with extensive lists of Vaughan Williams recordings include EMI, Decca, Chandos, Hyperion and Naxos. Vaughan Williams refused a knighthood at least once, and declined the post of Master of the King's Music after Elgar's death. The one state honour he accepted was the Order of Merit in 1935, which confers no prenominal title: he preferred to remain "Dr Vaughan Williams". His academic and musical honours included an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Oxford (1919); the Cobbett medal for
Symphony No. 5 (Vaughan Williams) appeared to have abandoned the work, and decided to incorporate some of its ideas and themes into other works, most notably the Fifth Symphony. In January 1943, Vaughan Williams arranged for two of his friends to play through the newly completed piano duet score of the symphony. In later years his widow, Ursula, recalled that he was not impressed after hearing it, causing him to doubt his new work. After hearing the first orchestral rehearsal by the London Philharmonic on 25 May, he changed his mind. Vaughan Williams dedicated the symphony to Jean Sibelius. At the time, the Finnish composer