大象传媒

As part of Radio 3's season Vaughan Williams Today, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth, another chance to hear an archive series from the Nash Ensemble performing at LSO St Luke's in London in 2017.

The UK's leading chamber group, the Nash Ensemble, celebrate two of the most tuneful of chamber music composers, Bruch and Vaughan Williams - and their little-known connection.

Vaughan Williams: St Denio (Scherzo) from Welsh Hymn Tunes
Bruch: String Quintet in E flat major
Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet in C minor (1903)
Nash Ensemble

In 1897 the young Englishman Ralph Vaughan Williams spent an enjoyable few months in Berlin studying with the renowned German composer Max Bruch. "Bruch encouraged me," Vaughan Williams recalled, "and I had never had much encouragement before." Bruch's official testimonial for Vaughan Williams calls him "a very good musician and a talented composer"; Vaughan Williams also remembered Bruch appreciating his "ve-ry o-riginaal ideeas" - though not his harmonies, which were "rather too originell". Hearing their music together, the delightful surprise is discovering how much they had in common.