Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to Arnold Bax.
Unlike Vaughan Williams's first three symphonies, it was not given a title, the composer stating that it was to be understood as pure music, without any incidental or external inspiration.
In contrast to many of Vaughan Williams's previous compositions, the symphony displays a severity of tone. The composer himself once observed of it, "I'm not at all sure that I like it myself now. All I know is that it's what I wanted to do at the time."[1] According to the letter written by Arthur Benjamin to Vaughan Williams on 21 April 1935 (BL MS Mus 1714/1/9, ff. 113–14),[2] the British composer Sir William Walton admired the work greatly. Benjamin wrote: "I met Willy Walton on the way to the Hall and he said — having been to the rehearsals — that we were going to hear the greatest symphony since Beethoven. Arnold, too, agreed."[3] An alternative source states that Walton heard Constant Lambert saying it to Benjamin.[4]
Only two symphonies of Vaughan Williams end loudly: No. 4 and No. 8.
The work was first performed on 10 April 1935 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult. Its first recording, made two years later, featured the composer himself conducting the same orchestra in what proved to be his only commercial recording of any of his symphonies. It was released on 78-rpm discs in the UK by HMV and in the US by RCA Victor, and has been reissued on LP and CD.[5]
The United States premiere was given on 19 December 1935 by Artur Rodziński and the Cleveland Orchestra.[6] The earliest American performance to have survived in recorded form was the broadcast of 21 May 1938 by Adrian Boult, guest conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, released by Pristine Classical. This was followed on 14 March 1943 by another performance by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. It was the only time he ever conducted the work and his performance has been issued on CD by Cala Records.