The music that follows makes use of the title-music of the film and four thematic elements, associated in turn with the antarctic wilderness, ice, fog and the unknown. The opening theme is based on an ascending modal scale and aptly suggests the frightening grandeur of the Antarctic. This is followed by a mysterious evocation of the icy wilderness, with harp, piano and xylophone providing a background to the thematic material, then taken up by the soprano soloist and women's voices, wordless and curiously disembodied. The wind-machine is heard, an instrument the inclusion of which in a symphony aroused a measure of contemporary critical hostility, before a fragment of the principal theme leads to an episode that makes icy use of glockenspiel, vibraphone and celesta. Tremolo violins appear, in accompaniment of a motif for flutes, clarinet and cor anglais, the soprano soloist leading then towards a distant trumpet fanfare and the mounting climax and challenge of the final section.

The Scherzo is prefaced by words from Psalm CIV

Leviathan duly appears in the movement, whales and penguins evoked in a score that continues to make the fullest use of orchestral colour, used pictorially and providing a contrast to the sombre menace of the first movement.

At the heart of the symphony lies the slow movement, Landscape. Here the superscription is taken from Coleridge's Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni:

The lines epitomize the scene depicted in the music, one of frozen stillness, the eerie wilderness evoked not only by the orchestral colouring, but by the slow-moving melodic material, with its incessant use of the interval of an augmented fourth. Slowly it reaches a climax in the burst of sound from the organ, which had hitherto in the movement been used to accompany with the pedals the bass line.

The Intermezzo is introduced by a quotation from John Donne's The Sun Rising:

The movement is framed by an oboe melody of warmer feeling, in music that, even so, accompanies tragedy, using some of the material designed for the self- sacrifice of Captain Oates, choosing death rather than delay his companions in their quest for the safety of their base camp.

The Epilogue takes its dominant idea from the last journal of Captain Scott:

The opening of the movement suggests the bravery of Scott and his companions, but it is in the end the icy wilderness that claims victory, heard in the return of the principal theme of the first movement, with the eerily disembodied voices of the women and the sound of the wind blowing over the icy wastes.

Vaughan Williams' s first wife, Adeline, had died in 1951, at the age of eighty. In 1953, shortly after the successful launching of the Sinfonia antartica in Manchester and in London, he married his second wife, Ursula Wood, the widow of a Royal Artillery officer, who had already provided texts for him and was later to be his biographer. The following year brought the first performance of his Tuba Concerto and a series of lectures in Canada and the United States at leading universities. By early 1955 he had completed his Eighth Symphony, a work he dedicated to Barbirolli, who conducted the first performance with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester on 2nd May 1956. Once again Vaughan Williams makes use of a wide range of orchestral colour, with instrumentation that includes double woodwind, pairs of horns and trumpets, three trombones, timpani and a percussion section that finds room for side drum, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells and, borrowed from Puccini's Turandot, tuned gongs or, in their absence, tam-tam. This is in addition to harps, celesta and strings.

The Symphony No.8 in D minor starts with a movement described in its title as Fantasia (Variazioni senza Tema), or, as the composer put it, seven variations in search of a theme. It is possible to hear in the over-all structure that of traditional sonata-form, with the third variation, marked Andante sostenuto, providing the second subject and perhaps the fourth and fifth an equivalent of the development, to be followed by the counterpart of a recapitulation in the final variations. The theme, which never appears, is heard in fragmentary form and at the outset with the colourful resources of vibraphone and celesta, as plucked strings accompany interjections from the trumpet and French horn, before the entry of the flute with a more extended melody. The second variation bursts in, to be followed by the contrasting solemnity of the hymn-like third. The oboe introduces the fourth variation, followed by the clarinet, and the fifth is an E minor Andante non troppo, The brass announce the sixth variation, marked Allregro vivace, to be followed by a variation that recalls the third derivative of the missing theme. There is a concluding coda and a brief postscript, as the woodwind recall fragments of the opening,

The second movement, Scherzo alla Marcia is scored only for wind instruments, It provides a lively contrast, a fair share of activity for the bassoons and a 618 trio section marked Andante, after which contrapuntal use is made of the returning scherzo, The Cavatina, for strings, offers a slow movement in E minor, with an intense cello melody at the start. There is secondary material, chordal and hymn-like in character, followed by a violin solo with figuration in characteristically pentatonic outline, a lark ascending and descending to introduce again the principal theme.

The symphony ends with a noisy Toccata that makes lively use of tuned percussion, at times seeming to owe more to Turandot than just the gongs. The form is that of a rondo, somewhat modified, but contrasting episodes, coloured by their instrumentation, are introduced in a cheerful and triumphant conclusion.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was founded on 22nd May 1893 by Dan Godfrey, the son of a Victorian band-master. At first it was known as the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and provided music for one of the most prosperous resorts on the South coast of England. Dan Godfrey served as principal conductor for the next forty years and established one of the most famous orchestras in Great Britain. Since then the orchestra has worked under a succession of distinguished Principal Conductors, the most recent being Sir Charles Groves. Constantin Silvestri. Paavo Berglund and Rudolf Barshai. In September 1988 the American conductor Andrew Litton was appointed Principal Conductor, with Kees Bakels as Principal Guest Conductor. In 1993 the orchestra celebrated its centenary, and during the ensuing year undertook its first tour of the USA. The visit consolidated a touring history which has included Russia, Hong Kong, Spain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, and Poland. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has recorded for a number of labels, with highly acclaimed interpretations of the complete Tchaikovsky Symphonies and the complete cycle of Vaughan Williams Symphonies for Naxos.

Lynda Russell
The English soprano Lynda Russell was born in Birmingham and studied at the Royal College of Music in London, in Paris and in Vienna, Her many prizes and awards include the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship. She has sung in many of the leading opera-houses of the world. At home she has appeared at Glyndebourne, with Opera North, Opera Northern Ireland and the English National Opera, with the last of these at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has appeared widely in oratorio and in concert performances, including a BBC television recording of Handel's Messiah with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen and a televised performance of the German Requiem of Brahms for BBC Wales. Other engagements have taken her to the major cities of Europe as a concert and recital singer.

Waynflete Singers
The Waynflete Singers are one of England's foremost choirs. Directed by David Hill, they give three concerts annually in Winchester Cathedral, usually together with the Cathedral Choir and professional orchestras and soloists. They have performed at the Cheltenham Festival, the London Promenade Concerts and in St Paul’s Cathedral, and have broadcast for the BBC, with three 1993 and 1984 Christmas concert televised. The choir has made a number of acclaimed recordings, with one selected as the Gramophone Chora1 CD of the year in 1994, followed in 1996 by the Grammy Award for Best Choral Recording, in a collaboration with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra.

Kees Bakels
Kees Bakels was born in Amsterdam, beginning his musical career as a violinist. He studied conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at the Academy Chigiana in Siena. During his studies he became Assistant Conductor of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently held the position of Associate Conductor with that orchestra. At the same time he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, which he has directed in festivals in Finland, Belgium and Spain. Kees Bakels has conducted all the major Dutch orchestras, as well as orchestras in Europe and Russia. He has also directed many concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1985 conducted his first London Promenade concert with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. From the beginning of his career, Kees Bakels has concentrated as much on opera as on the symphonic repertoire and has conducted English National Opera productions of Aida and Fidelio and productions by the Welsh National Opera of La Bohème and Die Zauberflöte. He has also specialised in the performance of lesser known operas by Mascagni and Leoncavallo and earlier works by Verdi in the concert- hall, broadcasting studio and opera-house. He became Principal Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in September 1988. In 1998 he was appointed Music Director Designate of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, with an inaugural concert under his direction in August 1998 in the new Petronas Hall in Kuala Lumpur.