Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams) Symphony No. 8 (Vaughan Williams) Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 8 in D minor was composed between 1953 and 1955. It was the first of his symphonies which Vaughan Williams numbered. Sir John Barbirolli conducted the premiere of the piece on 2 May 1956, with the Hallé Orchestra. The Eighth Symphony is the shortest of Vaughan Williams' nine symphonies, with a typical performance taking just under a half hour, yet it is remarkably inventive, especially in the composer's experiments in sonority. Not only does he use a much-expanded percussion section, including "all the 'phones and 'spiels known to the composer"
Adam Stern (conductor) noted for his frequent performances of English music, especially that of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He led the first Seattle Symphony performance of Vaughan Williams' "Pastoral Symphony" in 1996; In January 2007, he and the Seattle Philharmonic presented the Northwest premiere of the same composer's final symphony, No. 9. Stern has also led Seattle, Northwest, West Coast and world premieres of works by Aaron Copland, Gustav Holst, Aurelio de la Vega, Gerard Schurmann, Richard Peaslee, Richard Danielpour, Rodion Shchedrin, James Tenney, Roque Cordero, Karl Nord, Paul Stanhope and Goffredo Petrassi. He has composed incidental music for numerous dramatic production in Los