William Murdoch and The Chamber Music Players

During the latter part of the First World War Tertis's recitals brought him into close contact with the Australian pianist William Murdoch, who was to be the linchpin of one of the great British chamber music groups. From the point of view of posterity, it was the most important ensemble that Tertis played in, because – although the group as a whole did not leave recordings – he made records with some of its members. As he wrote:

Born in Bendigo, Victoria, in 1888, William Murdoch came to the Royal College of Music on a scholarship before the war, and may well have encountered Tertis there. In 1911 he went on tour to South Africa as Clara Butt's accompanist; he then spent three years touring the world as a recitalist. He quickly became well known as a Beethoven player. Early in 1916 he was introduced to Albert Sammons by a mutual friend, Viscount Coke, then a captain in the Scots Guards. In May that year Murdoch and Sammons were conscripted into the army; both joined the Grenadier Guards as bandsmen. In their spare time they began giving recitals together, and eventually Murdoch and Tertis began appearing together as well.

The Chamber Music Players – consisting of Murdoch, Sammons, Tertis and Felix Salmond – grew out of these contacts. It was this group, though with Raymond Jeremy instead of Tertis, that gave the first private performance of Elgar's Piano Quintet and String Quartet, with the composer's close friend W. H. ‘Billy’ Reed as second violinist, at Frank Schuster's house on 26 April 1919. The same musicians gave the public premieres at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May, with Sammons and Murdoch adding the Violin Sonata.