CD: Sir Adrian Boult/various orchestras and soloists: Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music, English Folk Song Suite, Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1, Fantasia on Greensleeves, In the Fen Country, The Lark Ascending (EMI)

DVD: The Queen

It's May, Queen Elizabeth II is visiting our area, and of course DC is in the midst of its celebration of Shakespeare. It seems the best possible time to revisit one of the most quintessentially English of composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and particularly that marvelous Boult collection listed above. Some of you might have preferred another composer -- Elgar, say, or Britten or Purcell -- but Vaughan Williams has every reason to be singled out this week. Aside from his remarkable output -- everything from symphonies to film scores, often on British themes -- he transcribed and preserved folk songs, composed hymns, and edited collections of Christmas carols.

On top of that, his works are evocative, lyrical. I'll never forget my first taste of Vaughan Williams -- inside the concert hall, as it happened, when the Buffalo Philharmonic was running a series affordable on a student budget. The work they played was Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, and I remember feeling strangely startled, infatuated, and quite at home.

If you have spent any time at all listening to classical music on the radio, sooner or later you've encountered something by Vaughan Williams, perhaps the English Folk Song Suite or The Lark Ascending, or perhaps even one of his folk song or carol arrangements. Frankly, for a long time I thought the local stations had an agreement whereby they'd play Vaughan Williams every day.

Not that I would complain, mind you. I still hold my breath during certain passages in the Boult recording of The Lark Ascending. Hugh Bean's violin solo is achingly beautiful and remains my favorite interpretation.

I'd also suggest The Lark for anyone who doesn't particularly have time for classical music. Listen to how beautifully Vaughan Williams captures the fluttering wings, the soaring flight, and how perfectly the violin and orchestra complement each other. You will want time to stop as the piece draws to a close.

Sometimes it seems every English folk song -- at least the ones that deal with love and courtship -- begins with a reference to a May morning or the springtime of the year. So it is with two of the chief tunes Ralph Vaughan Williams used for his English Folk Song Suite, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" and "Seventeen Come Sunday." Vaughan Williams understood how a folk song seems immediately familiar to the listener, and so it is with this suite. You don't have to know the tunes by name; just allow yourself to be seduced by the music.

The suite is played here in the Gordon Jacob arrangement for full orchestra, rather than the original military band arrangement. This lends particular charm, even when the music is in march tempo.

The Boult collection has over an hour of music, including the Fantasia on Greensleeves, In the Fen Country, and Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 -- all evocative of the English landscape, history, and culture, and all fitting additions to your collection, particularly if you are just getting started with Vaughan Williams. You'll find a lot of his works on the major labels, including in mid-line or budget packaging. Naxos in particular has been recording some of the lesser-known works, and their catalogue is very much worth a look.

And in case you're wondering, yes, Ralph is pronounced "Rafe," just as it is for Mr. Fiennes, star of The English Patient and supporting player to Helen Mirren in the first Prime Suspect.

On a related note, if you are crestfallen at being left off the various guest lists for Queen Elizabeth's local events, consider spending your evening with Helen Mirren, whose Academy Award-winning performance as the monarch is the highlight of The Queen, now available on DVD.

The movie is as much about politics and the media as it is about the monarchy, though, and as such is a must-see for any news junkie in the DC area. That witty script captures the power struggles, cultural shifts, and human emotions of the first months of the Blair government, and Michael Sheen gives a breakout performance as the savvy but ultimately vulnerable prime minister. You'll be seeing a lot more of this actor, who's currently winning praise on Broadway for his performance as David Frost opposite Frank Langella's Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

In fact, artistically speaking, the British aren't coming; they're here, if recent Broadway triumphs by Bill Nighy and Richard Griffiths are any indication.

Getting back to the performances in The Queen, I also liked Helen McCrory's skeptical, tradition-shattering Cherie Booth Blair. As with Joan Allen's great performance in Nixon, I couldn't tell how much was informed by the real woman, but McCrory, like Allen, slips out of the usual confines of political spouse.

And then there are the little touches. My cousin, a patroness of corgis, was pleased to see a contingent of those lovable dogs milling about Mirren's feet as she put her on-screen prime minister in his place. You can't have the queen without her corgis.

But of course it's Mirren who owns the movie, and so magnificently inhabits the title role. It's a reflection of her experience and depth, as well as the gifts of screenwriter Peter Morgan. Keep an eye on both of them, too.