Violinist Midori Komachi performs Vaughan Williams at the composer’s home

Celebrating 150 years since the birth of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Midori Komachi and Simon Callaghan filmed their performance at Leith Hill Place in Surrey, the composer’s former residence.

The Japanese violinist has developed a diverse career in bridging UK and Japanese cultures through music, with her latest album Vaughan Williams: Complete Works for Violin and Piano.

Recorded with her duet partner Callaghan, Komachi explores some of Vaughan Williams’s best-known works for violin and piano including The Lark Ascending, Romance and Pastorale and Six Studies in English Folksong. 

The CD also includes his lesser known Sonata in A major which forms the bigger portion of this recording. 

’While the Sonata is a significant work in its own right, it is rarely performed, possibly for reasons of its technical demands,’ Komachi said. ’Having recorded it, I can confirm this is one of the most challenging sonatas in the violin repertoire, but at the same time, it is a work that opens a door to a deeper pathway into the composer’s thoughts.’

Komachi is the PRS Foundation’s musician in residence has performed extensively both in Europe and Japan collaborating with other organisations such as British Airways, the British Council and British cosmetics retailer, LUSH. 

In 2014, her album Colours of the Heart, which included the works of Debussy, Delius and Ravel was praised as a ‘Sensitive accounts of music full of sensual allure’ in The Strad.