By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 7 January 2009]

The Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn anniversaries are upon us, but the echo of the Vaughan Williams year - 2008 marked the 50th anniversary of his death - continues to reverberate. Tuesday’s recital demonstrated what rich seams lie beneath the popular surface of Vaughan Williams’s art: this is what musical anniversaries should be about. It was the latest in a series devised by the pianist Julius Drake, whose programme-making skills and wide-ranging friendships have made him a pivotal figure in London’s busy recital scene.