The Nash Ensemble, acclaimed for its adventurous programming and virtuoso performances, presents works from Haydn to the avant-garde, and is a major contributor towards the recognition and promotion of contemporary composers: by the end of the 2011/12 season the group will have premiered over 267 new works, of which 168 have been specially commissioned.
An impressive collection of recordings illustrates the same varied and colourful combination of classical masterpieces, little-known neglected gems and important contemporary works. CDs released in 2010/11 have included all the Mozart String Quintets for Hyperion, and Brahms Piano Quartet in A and the Clarinet Trio for Onyx. A disc of chamber works by David Matthews for NMC was recently shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. Future releases include chamber works by Schumann, Turina, 19th-century Russian composers and works by Czech composers incarcerated in the Theresienstadt concentration camp between 1941 and 1945.
In their current Wigmore Hall series "Echoes of Romanticism", the Nash explores the romantic period in Germany and Austria, focusing on music written in the 19th and the second half of the 20th century. The Ensemble traces the romantic spirit from Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, by way of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, to Schoenberg and Zemlinsky. The great Straussian soprano Dame Felicity Lott will sing the last scene from Strauss's opera Capriccio, and leading singers, Bernarda Fink, Wolfgang Holzmair and Alice Coote join the group in song cycles by Mahler, to mark the centenary of his death. The 2012/13 Wigmore series, entitled "Dreamers of Dreams", focuses on the works of British composers from the first half of the 20th century, in particular Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten.
The Nash Ensemble has won numerous accolades including The Edinburgh Festival Critics award 'for general artistic excellence' and two Royal Philharmonic Society awards in the chamber music category "for the breadth of its taste and its immaculate performance of a wide range of music."