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Donald Macleod charts Vaughan Williams's progress as the young composer seeks out Max Bruch in Berlin with the aim of broadening his musical skills.

Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the UK's most significant musical figures. This month, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at this much-loved composer as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth Donald will be telling Vaughan Williams's life story and exploring his music in fascinating detail over the course of four weeks and twenty programmes. Interleaved with Donald's in-depth narrative accounts, some of our leading authorities on Vaughan Williams will be joining him to share new perspectives. They'll be unpacking the overlooked and less well-known aspects of a composer whose body of work and diverse interests have made such an enduring imprint on British cultural life.

The first week of this landmark series focuses on Vaughan Williams's formative years, and his earliest works. It could be said that Vaughan Williams was pre-destined to be a leading figure in the musical life of Great Britain. He was born in 1872 with, in his own words, "a small silver spoon in his mouth" and his mother was part of the Wedgwood and Darwin dynasties. Charles Darwin was Vaughan Williams's great uncle. Raised, after his father's early death, in the matriarchal family home Leith Hill Place in Surrey, young Ralph was encouraged in the pursuit of knowledge from an early age. The values he was exposed to growing up are reflected in his social awareness later on. He wrote music for every kind of setting, from the concert hall to the village hall. We’ll follow his development from his very first attempt at writing music, Robin's Nest, to the assurance of his London Symphony.

In today's programme, Donald recounts how Vaughan Williams and his new bride made the most of their stay in Germany, filling their days with trips to the State Opera, concerts and visits to museums and galleries.

The Water Mill
Roderick Williams, baritone
Iain Burnside, piano

The last invocation for soprano, baritone and violin with piano
Mary Bevan, soprano
Johnny Herford, baritone
Thomas Gould, violin
William Vann, piano

A Sea Symphony
III: The Waves
I: A song for all Seas (excerpt)
Hallé Choir
Hallé Youth Choir
Schola Cantorum
Ad solem
Hallé Orchestra
Mark Elder, conductor

The Garden of Proserpine (excerpt)
Jane Irwin, soprano
Joyful Company of Singers
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Paul Daniel, conductor

Five mystical songs
Love bade me welcome
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
Graham Johnson, piano

The Wasps – Overture
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Adrian Boult