No, that doesn’t refer to the BBC’s latest classic serial Lark Rise at Candleford, but to Vaughan Williams’s famous piece The Lark Ascending, which topped Classic FM’s listeners’ poll for their favourite piece of music.

It was Ralph VW’s year, for he also came third with his more substantial work Fantasies on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

Half a century after his death, the British composer’s 1914 programme piece of a lark singing over the English countryside took the number one spot in the Hall of Fame for the second year in a row.

More than 100,000 Classic FM listeners voted in the survey.

Darren Henley of Classic FM said: “The British public has spoken and declared Vaughan Williams their champion. In the 50 years since his death, Vaughan Williams has cemented his position as among the best-loved English composers of all time.”

At number two was Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, while Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto and Sixth Symphony took fourth and fifth place.

The full Top 20 :

1. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending
2. Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No 2
3. Vaughan Williams - Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis
4. Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 5
5. Beethoven - Symphony No 6
6. Mozart - Clarinet Concerto
7. Elgar - Cello Concerto
8. Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1
9. Elgar - Enigma Variations
10. Beethoven - Symphony No 9
11. Pachelbel - Canon
12. Barber - Adagio for Strings
13. Jenkins - The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace
14. Vivaldi - Four Seasons
15. Rachmaninov - Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini
16. Holst - The Planets
17. Grieg - Piano Concerto
18. Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
19. Mozart - Requiem
20. Handel - Messiah.

In the previous post we reported how young violinist David Garrett fell on his priceless 18th-century fiddle after a Barbican concert, breaking it almost beyond repair.

The instrument was so badly damaged that even with an estimated £60,000 ($120,000) repair bill, the Guadagnini — which cost him $1million five years ago — may never sound the same again.

Now has had some unexpected luck. Copies of his album of Tchaikovsky’s violin concertos, which feature the last recordings of the violin, are changing hands for up to £425 ($850) on Amazon.

Before the accident, the DVD was selling for just £10 ($20).

As they say, it’s an ill wind …

Even so, I doubt it compensates for the loss of such a rare violin.

The delectable Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins has just published her autobiography, Time To Say Hello.

Most of the publicity for it centres on a harrowing passage describing how she narrowly escaped being raped by an attacker when she was 19 and studying at the Royal Academy of Music.

While we understand the need for a “killer fact” to sell the book, the prurience of the press in concentrating on this particular aspect of the singer’s life is a pity because it certainly has more to recommend it than that.

The rest of the biography is considerably more interesting for admirers of her voice and technique. Here’s a little taster :

I had arrived in London at the age of 18, having won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.

The Academy was everything I had hoped for - in fact, it was fab-lous (my favourite word, pronounced Welsh-lilt style, as two words). I became great friends with my classmates and we were all determined to make the most of what London had to offer. […]

Some months after leaving the Academy, when I was working as a music teacher, I got a call out of the blue to say that a demo tape I had made at college had found its way into the hands of Universal Classics.

After being interviewed and singing for the team there, I was offered a record deal.

Soon after signing the contract in March 2003, news of what was described as my “million-pound record deal” was everywhere. […]

My first album, Premiere, shot straight to the top of the classical charts.

Even now, having recorded five albums and been lucky enough to meet and work with so many of my musical heroes and performing all over the world, it still seems like a fairy tale.

Time To Say Hello by Katherine Jenkins is published by Orion on January 28 at £18.99 in the UK.

After another season of achingly politically correct Proms from the BBC, directed for the last time by Nicholas Kenyon, there’s a slim hope for a return to the glory days of Sir Henry Wood and Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Royal Albert Hall

What should be an occasion for celebration of everything English — something like Burn’s Night is for Scotland — we are instead treated to a sickly soup of multiculturalism and tributes to the European Union.

Time, I think, to remove this festival of “classical” music from the BBC and hand it to some other body that will treat it with care for its origins.

The Last Night was, true to form, hopelessly out of focus. The famous sea song medley was ruined by the addition of Celtic airs which, Kenyon never seems to spot, is totally out of place.

Ah well, if the new Director doesn’t put this right, the Proms will probably be replaced by the Notting Hill Carnival as England’s premier musical event. Time to emigrate, I think.