For imaginative concert programming, it would be hard to beat the early festivals of the International
Society for Contemporary Music, before the Second World War. Surprisingly, amid all the established big names and the young lions at the start of their careers, British composers played as big a role as any. In this six-part series,
Martin Cotton sifts through the mix, plays the music and assesses how the British contributions fared in this context. With contributions from Berthold Goldschmidt and Sir William Glock.
1: 1922-23
The ISCM's first two years saw Lord Berners hobnobbing with Stravinsky, Percy Grainger sharing the stand with Schoenberg's second string quartet and the world premiere of a remarkable string quartet by a young, unknown Briton - William Walton.
Producer David Gallagher