Malvern Concert Club: The Nash Ensemble

Chamber Ensemble in Residence at Wigmore Hall, the Nash has been presenting an annual themed series there since 1979. The ensemble’s 2023–24 season at Wigmore Hall was entitled ‘Songs from my Homeland – Music from the Czech Lands with works by Brahms’, and the annual Nash Inventions concert on 26 March 2024 was a celebration and remembrance of the life and music of Sir Harrison Birtwistle. There was also a concert dedicated to the artists and to the music performed in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp 1941–1945. Tragically, many of these wonderful artists were murdered at Auschwitz.

During the 2024-25 season at Wigmore Hall the Nash marks its 60th anniversary with a range of programmes illustrating the variety of music performed by the Ensemble over the years, from Mozart to the avant garde. New works being commissioned to celebrate the 60th anniversary are by Julian Anderson, John Casken, Helen Grime, Simon Holt, Colin Matthews, David Matthews, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Huw Watkins.

Regarded as a standard-bearer of British music-making around the world, the group has premièred over 300 new works, of which 215 have been especially commissioned. The Nash has toured throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. The Ensemble is a regular visitor to many European and British music festivals and can be heard on radio, at the BBC Proms, and at music clubs throughout the country.

Recent releases for Hyperion include works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Max Bruch and Ferdinand Ries, while future releases include CDs of string sextets by Tchaikovsky and Korngold and chamber works by Debussy. The Ensemble has received two Royal Philharmonic awards ‘for the breadth of its taste and immaculate performance.’