Elgar’s Violin Concerto and the London Symphony of Vaughan Williams are both creations of the Edwardian era, and each work has come to be recognised as an enduring symbol of the Englishness of its composer. But these very different masterpieces reflect very different men, and each one carries its own significance in the composer’s life. The distinguished music critic Michael Kennedy talks about two of the composers closest to his heart.

The British strand that runs through this season is introduced in the Thursday Series by two of the greatest names, Elgar and Vaughan Williams, with centrepieces of the repertoire. Expect a thrilling mix of new and old in an account of Elgar’s Violin Concerto by the dazzlingly gifted Danish musician Nikolaj Znaider. He plays the very violin, a 1741 Guarneri del Gesù, on which Fritz Kreisler gave the work its first performance almost exactly a hundred years ago. However, Znaider’s virtuosity and his intensity are entirely his own. Sir Mark Elder, unequalled in the authority and sensitivity he brings to British music, rounds off the evening with Vaughan Williams’s picturesque portrait of England’s capital and its characterful inhabitants.

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