Andrew Manze & Bruce Liu by Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, Od (2023/2023), Dirigent Andrew Manze, Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland

Plagiarism of all kinds is nowadays greatly frowned upon, but in the Renaissance, borrowing from another composer was considered a great compliment. Ralph Vaughan Williams honoured an age-old tradition by borrowing a theme by a 16th-century colleague for an orchestral Fantasia. Camille Saint-Saëns found exotic ideas for his last piano concerto on a visit to the temple city of Luxor, hence The Egyptian. The third symphony, The Rhenish, by Robert Schumann does some musical sightseeing a little nearer home.