Closing the season with scale and grandeur on July 3, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra launched the audience onto the high seas with a programme anchored by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ rarely performed A Sea Symphony.The sprawling work has not been aired by the orchestra since the 1980s and it is a cantata, song cycle and oratorio rolled into one, each of its four movements set to American poet Walt Whitman’s lines on exploration and humanity.With Tarmo Peltokoski at the helm, it was a stirring and arresting journey from the outset, employing the forces of an augmented orchestra, the concert-hall organ, three choirs and two vocal soloists.“A Song for All Seas, All Ships”, the powerful opening proclamation, showcased both the HK Phil’s brass section with its bright, acerbic fanfares, and the robustness of the combined HK Phil Chorus, State Choir Latvija and the acclaimed London-based Tenebrae choir.Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra musicians pay tribute to veteran horn player Homer Lee (back row, middle), who is retiring. Photo: HK Phil/Keith HiroGrandeur alternated with mystery as the work’s key motives. “Behold, the sea itself” and “on its limitless heaving breast” – the first two lines in the first movement – were dexterously interwoven and then developed into intricate tapestries of undulating textures, where snake-like strings wove wily contours, then contrasted those with neat, crisp chugging passages.