Wales Feed

Performing at the Best Classical Music Festival in the World

2015-07-28T08:08:25+00:00

I’ve worked with the Chorus for the past 9 and 3/4 years (yes, I've been here that long!), and of all our concerts there's something about The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall that's a little bit special. Standing on the stage of such a grand place, representing our nation, you get an overwhelming sense of pride.

BBC Proms Ten Pieces concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Photo: Guy Levy

Having performed last year at the First Night of the Proms, the Chorus were chuffed to be invited back this year. The BBC choral family - BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC National Chorus of Wales joined forces for the first time and with just a short rehearsal before the concert, broadcasting live to tens of thousands of people on television and radio, it’s was an exciting and nerve-wracking time. There were over 400 of us performing Belshazzar's Feast (by William Walton) and the sound that filled the Royal Albert Hall was phenomenal.

There was no rest for me as we went straight into a Prom the next night. Over the last year our Orchestra has engaged with thousands of children through the Ten Pieces project, which culminated in two Proms. With a life sized Firebird (inspired by Stravinsky) flying through the Royal Albert Hall, trolls causing chaos and our Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård teaching Dick & Dom to conduct, you could see and hear the excitement of some the Orchestra’s youngest fans.

BBC Proms - Ten Pieces: The Firebird. Photo: Guy Levy

Outreach work is another part of my role so just before we started the Proms, the Orchestra, a few Chorus members and I introduced these Ten Pieces to schools in North and Mid Wales. Teaching the children to sing Zadok the Priest (by Handel) and creating thunderstorms with our hands was lots of fun!

With a few more Proms ahead of us it's a very busy time of year but for the Chorus and Orchestra it’s definitely a highlight, and of course bringing some of the magic of the Proms back to Wales at Proms in the Park in Swansea is the perfect finale for us.

The author leading a choral workshop at Ten PIeces concert in Deeside. Photo: Celynnen Photography

Find out more about BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales at the Proms on the bbc.co.uk/proms website.

And you can see all of BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales’s latest Proms at bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007v097/episodes/player

Coda: Laura's last blog

2015-02-16T13:05:12+00:00

It feels like only a few months ago that I sat down to write my first blog entry for the BBC Wales Blog, and so, over 100 entries later, I feel somewhat reflective as I sit down to write this, my final blog.

I have learnt so much over the course of these last few years. Writing this blog has offered me an unashamedly self-indulgent opportunity to really delve into the works that we perform, to share my personal relationship with my instrument and work, and to develop and vocalise my opinions about what we do.

I believe, so fervently, that the arts are an integral part of our society, even, or perhaps especially, in this age of instant gratification where whatever you want, there is an app for that, and yet the time we have for our personal lives and needs seems to diminish daily.

A view from the strings - in rehearsals with Thomas Søndergård (photo by Betina Skovbro)

I believe that music, in particular, offers us a unique way of connecting with our most inner selves, of expressing and/or confronting emotions that are sometimes so intangible, or so deeply personal, that they are impossible to put into words. As the storyteller Hans Christian Anderson so eloquently put it ‘where words fail, music speaks’.

We at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales have an exciting 2015 ahead of us, with so many great works, both old and new to bring to our audiences around Wales, and further afield. Earlier this month we were joined by the wonderful young British pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, considered one of the brightest lights of the keyboard in the world, for a fantastic performance of the first of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos. During the course of rehearsals programme, we worked with students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and on the concert day, with young musicians from the Swansea area.

As the seasons in Cardiff and Swansea wear on, we will also tour North Wales with young British conductor, Ben Gernon. In addition to this, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is just around the corner, as is our Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular UK Tour. The first of our Sibelius recordings with Thomas will be released imminently, and we look forward to visits at myriad British festivals.

Of course, none of this would matter in the slightest if it wasn’t for you - our audience. The orchestras of the United Kingdom need the support of their audiences. We need your support. It is a cliché perhaps to say that we are nothing without our audience, but truly we are not. Music, the arts in general, are a shared experience, built upon the interaction and communication of the performer and the audience. In the absence of either party, the purpose of the other ceases to exist.

So, dear reader and listener - be vocal, be present. Get in touch with the Orchestra, let your views be heard, positive and negative alike, and help us to become the most exciting, vibrant, purposeful creative body we can be. We are not only one of the BBC Performing Groups, but also Wales’ National Orchestra, and we want to serve the artistic wants of our audience as best we can.

BBC NOW performing in Venue Cymru (image by Betina Skovbro)

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to interact with our audience through my blog, and I have enjoyed the messages I have received, and the conversations I have had with many of you about the work of the Orchestra, the music we play, and the incredible artists who we collaborate with. I look forward to seeing you in a concert hall, somewhere, soon.

This is the last in Laura’s series of blogs. Many thanks to Laura for all of her contributions over the years.

BBC NOW’s guest bloggers will continue to offer their insight into life in the Orchestra, right here on the BBC Wales blog.

A new generation of composers for Wales

2015-02-09T14:16:44+00:00

If you have visited the Orchestra’s website recently, you will have read the information relating to this year’s Composition: Wales event. The eight composers we will work with have now been announced and I am assuming they will currently be painstakingly combing their scores and parts, expunging any instrumentation errors, fine tuning their works, and writing their programme notes.

Since I joined the Orchestra, this is an event that has grown considerably in scale and is now spread over three days. The first of these days takes place on 11 February, and if you attend you will be able to watch the Orchestra workshop the composers’ scores.

In last year's project, seven composers worked with the Orchestra over three days (taken by Betina Skovbro, 2014)

So what does that actually entail? What is the point of ‘workshopping’? During these workshops, we briefly rehearse and perform each of the composers’ works, and then there will follow a period of interaction between the composer, conductor and orchestra on various technical and musical aspects of the work.

For some composers, it will be the first time they have had the opportunity to work with real live musicians (as opposed to hearing their work on a computer, or in a piano reduction, or in their head). This can mean that sometimes they need a little guidance with regards to how to express an idea practically on a particular instrument.

For example, rapid semiquavers in the bass area of a piano with one note in every four a note from the high treble range will sound fabulous on a piano, but the same effect is unlikely to be achieved if you ask a whole viola section to play this. This of course does not mean that the musical idea is invalid, simply that some consideration must be given as to how to achieve its expression. One of the primary purposes of this workshop is education, and so we aim to help the composer to better their ability to convey their ideas through writing intelligently for the instruments used.

In addition to this, the opportunity to work with an orchestra can massively broaden the soundscape of a developing composer. The sounds, colours, and textures an orchestra can create are infinite, and given the chance to control the orchestral forces there can then be a temptation to use everything at once, simply because it’s there (I know if it were me, I’d have church bells, organ, two sets of timps, double brass and 18 violas in everything…and an alto flute, I love the alto flute).

A composer from last year's project works with BBC NOW's leader, Lesley Hatfield

However, having had the opportunity to include everything (plus the kitchen sink) hopefully the composer can leave the workshop bowled over by all the tools at his disposal but with a more measured approach to using them - a more refined palate, if you will.

After a further day of workshops on 31 March, a selection of the eight works will then be chosen for presentation in a concert on 1 April. In the rehearsal on the day, the composers will be treated as though they were any other composer who has come in to work with the Orchestra.

They are expected to be able to answer any questions arising from the score that are unclear, to be able to answer on the spot any harmonic queries and to solve any other problems that arise, as well as give concise useful information about the expression of the piece. A pretty daunting task, but an amazing opportunity.

It must be an incredible sensation to hear the work you have put so much into come alive. I hope the eight participants are excited, and feeling rightly proud of themselves for being chosen, as we had an incredible response to the call for scores.

Find out more about BBC NOW’s Composition: Wales project by visiting the Orchestra’s website. Free tickets for all of the workshops are available by calling 0800 052 1812.

Delving into the music of composer Thierry Escaich

2015-01-23T10:00:00+00:00

After our last Scandinavian Connection concert, working with our wonderful Composer-in-Association, B Tommy Andersson, BBC NOW are continuing our run of new sounds for the new year! This Wednesday evening (28 January) will see us present a BBC Hoddinott Hall Composer Portrait, on this occasion focusing on the music of the French composer, organist and improviser, Thierry Escaich.

He is recognised globally as an instrumentalist (some of you may have caught him performing in Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony at the BBC Proms in 2013). However, it may be fair to say that although Escaich has received a great deal of critical acclaim for his compositional work in both mainland Europe and the United States, in the United Kingdom his work is perhaps less well known.

The musical community is very much an international one, and I think it is such a shame when an artist makes a big splash elsewhere and yet we in Blighty don’t get the chance to experience their art and make up our own minds. This is why I believe the BBC NOW Composer Portrait concerts are so important; if you don’t experience something yourself, how can you really have an opinion on it?

We will present four works, Baroque Song, Miror d’Ombre, Vertiges de la croix and Three Motets. Three Motets is the earliest of Escaich’s works (1998) and will feature members of the BBC National Chorus of Wales with Chorus Director, Adrian Partington, at the organ. For 2006’s Miror d’Ombre, we are incredibly excited to be joined by cellist Xavier Phillips, and violinist, Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, of the Trio Wanderer. The Orchestra itself takes centre stage for 2007’s Baroque Song, and 2004’s Vertiges de la Croix, a work for large symphony orchestra inspired by the central panel of a Ruebens triptych found in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp.

Thierry Escaich (picture by Guy Vivien)

If you are fairly well up on your French, there are excellent interviews with Thierry Escaich available on YouTube that will give you a flavour of Escaich’s compositional approach and ideas.

Even better, in my opinion, are the great number of videos available of his improvisations at the organ. Without wanting to offend every organist in the country, the organ is not generally considered the most rock and roll of instruments, but under the fingers (and feet!) of Escaich, it becomes an instrument so far removed from the church services of my childhood that it is almost unrecognisable!

On a different note, the mentions of the BBC’s Ten Pieces have made terrific reading on Twitter and various other news and social media websites over the last number of months. We are so proud to have been a central part of this wonderful nationwide project, and members of our Orchestra have been busy getting out and about in schools right across Wales, working with teachers and students on further projects inspired by the film.

Tickets are already available and popular for our live Ten Pieces performance with Thomas Søndergård on 20 March - if your children enjoyed watching the film in the cinema (or on TV over Christmas), bring them along to experience the spectacle live. In the meantime, the accompanying e-book is available for free, and features members of the Orchestra talking about their instruments and favourite Ten Pieces works.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales explores the work of Thierry Escaich in a Composer Portrait on Wednesday 28 January, 7.30pm, at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay. For more information and to book, visit the Orchestra’s website or call 0800 052 1812.

Bringing fresh music to Cardiff Bay

2015-01-19T13:07:58+00:00

Dark and murky as it is, I do love January. A new diary with blank pages waiting for exciting things to be put in, a fresh resolve to try new things/eat better/exercise more - a new year, filled with such potential, even in the bleakest days of winter, to me has a real forward looking freshness.

And so far this year, we have been spoilt with fresh sounds in BBC Hoddinnott Hall. We have just spent a number of days recording for International Womans’ Day (8 March), recording works by female composers of the early Twentieth Century. This is a period that really interests me (both my Bachelors and Masters thesis were based on this area of research), and there can be no doubt that up until at least the mid-Twentieth Century, composition, and to a very slightly lesser extent, high standard and profile performance, were considered unnatural and unsuitable pursuits for the female. Unless of course it was in a drawing room and in the interests of snaring a suitor. That was to be encouraged.

I often wonder how many incredible works our lives will never be enriched by because of this, so it was, for me, very exciting to record works by Ethel Smyth and Florence B. Price. We were joined by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Elena Urioste (violin) and Alex Frank-Gemmill, so really if the music making had been any fresher, our producers would have had to have foil packed it!

Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård introduces BBC NOW's Composer-in-Association B Tommy Andersson

Now we are preparing for our first Afternoon concert at BBC Hoddinott Hall of 2015, where we will be joined by our Composer-in-Association, B Tommy Andersson for a special concert curated by him. When we performed B Tommy’s ‘The Garden of Delights’ at our season opener (was that really only in October?!), I was very much taken by surprise at the audience reaction to his music. It is seldom that I have seen such immediate and positive response to a work of contemporary composition from an audience, and I cannot wait to get to know more of this music (book your tickets now for our composer portrait of B Tommy on 25th February).

B Tommy Andersson

For this concert, B Tommy has chosen four works from his native Sweden, by composers whose music he admires and/or whose compositional style and approach has influenced him. Of course, if you’ve had a little look at the season brochure, you will already have noted that B Tommy has not just chosen the works for this concert, but that he will also be taking the conductors’ podium for it too. We will play works by Hilding Rosenberg, Ingvar Lidholm (who played the viola - just thought I’d throw that titbit in there!), Norman Ludvig (who composed a great sonata for viola and piano) and Hugo Alvfén.

Interestingly, most of these composers at some point studied with, or were strongly influenced by Wilhelm Stenhammer, whose work we have performed in the past. For many of them, their music is characterised by a sense of romanticism, and often folk influences, whilst also being forward-looking, and using a modern musical language.

So, fresh sounds for a fresh new year from Hoddinott Hall. Make it your new year’s resolve to come see your national symphony orchestra live and in the flesh, either at our home in Cardiff Bay, at St David’s Hall, Cardiff (where we are Orchestra-in-Residence), the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, or any number of other venues around the country. Stay in touch via our website, on Facebook and Twitter. We really do hope to see you soon.

B Tommy Andersson conducts the Orchestra tomorrow (20 January) at BBC Hoddinott Hall. For tickets, call 0800 052 1812 or visit the Orchestra’s website. You can also catch up afterwards for 30 days via the BBC Radio 3 website.

On Wednesday 25 February, the Orchestra presents a Composer Portrait of B Tommy Andersson’s music. Visit the Orchestra’s website to find out more.

Discover more about the Orchestra's Scandinavian season by exploring their brochure online.

Christmas with BBC NOW

2014-12-17T13:44:31+00:00

How’s your Christmas shopping going? Have you wrestled with your fellow man over the last toys in shopping centres?

With each passing year, I find the run up to Christmas increasingly stressful; there is simply never the time to do all that you plan to do, meet all the people you plan to meet, nor the cash to gift all the gifts you would like to gift. Additionally, as reports of snow in Ireland begin to circulate, my annual ‘will I make it home for Christmas’ panic has begun in earnest.

In all the crazed tearing around that we put ourselves through during the festive period, how often do we miss out on actually enjoying this beautiful festival? How often do we not make the time to enjoy doing nothing, or being entertained, in our loved ones’ company (and passed out with exhaustion together on the couch post-Christmas Day feeding frenzy most certainly does not count)?

This Christmas, we at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales are offering audiences in Cardiff, Swansea and Haverfordwest the perfect antidote to the Yuletide onslaught, with festive concerts suitable for friends and family alike.

We will be joined by Welsh tenor, Wynne Evans at each concert, and our wonderful choirs – with Caerphilly Childrens’ Choir in Cardiff and BBC National Chorus of Wales; Ysgol Gerdd Ceredigion and BBC NCW (second night in a row!) in Swansea; and the Pembrokeshire Youth Choir in Haverfordwest.

Our presenter Wynne Evans

There will of course be seasonal family favourites, many of which have been specially arranged for the Orchestra by Welsh musicians Gareth Glynn and Jeff Howard, but this year I am particularly excited to play music from Disney’s ‘Frozen’. My Goddaughter Rosie is four years old and knows every word of the songs from this cartoon film, and I have to say I think the film itself is pretty good - at least Disney have finally made a princess who isn’t waiting around like some pathetic idiot waiting to be saved by some bland, drab knight in shining armour!

So, as you run around the shops desperately searching for the last few perfect presents, take a little time out and bring your loved ones to one of our Christmas concerts. Take a break from the hysteria of the British High Street at Christmas and let us entertain you and help you get into the Christmas spirit proper. Tickets are selling fast at all three venues, so you will have to be quick!

BBC NOW with Pembrokeshire Youth Choir

I am looking forward to my Christmas annual leave more than ever before. Having spent my summer break studying in Austria, I’ve not had the opportunity to visit my family for a very long stretch, and Christmas in Ireland is something very special to me.

You, however, can see/hear the Orchestra in action on a number of occasions over the Christmas period! Don’t forget to tune in to the Doctor Who Christmas Special on BBC One on Christmas Day, and then on Boxing Day, get your little kids and big kids alike settled in front of BBC Two to watch our cinematic debut Ten Pieces! There is also a free interactive audiobook complimenting Ten Pieces available now, featuring members of the Orchestra (including yours truly!), talking about their instruments.

We at BBC NOW HQ would like to wish all our audience members a very peaceful festive period and we look forward to sharing our music with you in 2015.

Limited tickets are available for all of BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ Christmas Concerts – call 0800 052 1812 or visit bbc.co.uk/now to book.

Laura’s tour diary – Aberystwyth, Bangor & Llandudno

2014-12-12T11:28:03+00:00

Last month, BBC National Orchestra of Wales performed in Brecon, Aberystwyth, Bangor, and Llandudno as part of their tour to mid and north Wales. Laura Sinnerton kept a diary of the tour – exploring what life is like on the road with the orchestra.

Friday 28 November

The drive to Aberystwyth is quite a mission, but I always feel compensated by the prospect of a wander around the arts centre gift shop and its amazing book store. This evening is the first outing of our Celtic Impressions programme. It opens with William Mathias 'Dance Overture', a work that I am rather fond of. This is swiftly followed by Elgar’s 'Sea Pictures' with soloist Jennifer Johnston (who is wearing a stunning dark blue satin gown which my desk partner Pete and I strongly approved of).

After the interval, we play Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s 'Irish Rhapsody No 1' (which begs the question - how many did he actually write?) and even after much rehearsal I’m still not sure what I think of this work. The orchestral colours are quite beautiful, and it is rather fun to play, but I find it somewhat over-laboured. I love the melody 'Danny Boy' as much as the next person, but I do feel as though there is just one repetition too many of it in the middle section of the work. Still, the work is good fun and the audience visibly enjoy it. With that, it is on to Mendelssohn’s 'Scottish Symphony' - my favourite Mendelssohn symphony.

Saturday 29 November

BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Bangor

The following morning (and incidentally, the day of my grandmother’s 90th birthday party - Happy Birthday Granny!) sees us make our way to Bangor. A little separatist string quartet group leads the vanguard as they will go to work on composition with music students at Bangor University. This has become quite a regular feature of the orchestra’s Bangor visits with Joe Williams from our second violin section proving himself to be a more than able facilitator for these sessions.

Tonight’s concert is a repeat of the Celtic Impressions programme and it is interesting to hear the fresh challenges that the music throws up in terms of balance and ensemble in the resonant acoustic of the Prichard-Jones Hall. Due to the shape of the stage and the positioning of the risers, the harp and celeste are now right behind the violas which means we get to hear a completely different aspect of the music from that we normally hear. Usually we only hear these instruments at a distance over the expanse of the first and second violins!

The depth of the stage in Bangor means that the wind and brass are at quite a distance from the front of the orchestra. This makes maintaining good ensemble-playing something you have to think very consciously about, and the poor wind and brass have to almost play ahead of the beat in order for the sound to reach the auditorium at the same time as that of the strings. They sound fabulous, however and I think that the 'Sea Pictures' in particular sounds glorious this evening.

Sunday 30 November

Llandudno Beach

Sunday sees our final concert of this short tour, and not only a return to the Impressions of Italy programme, but also to a dry theatre acoustic. It is great to see such a good audience at Venue Cymru, Llandudno on a Sunday afternoon, and today I particularly enjoy Respighi’s 'The Birds' - a curious work, very sparse, but beautifully orchestrated.

With my viola packed away and a quick change back into my civvies, it’s back to Cardiff. The orchestra has a really intense recording patch coming up comprising the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and the next patch of our Sibelius recordings for Linn records under our Principal Conductor, Thomas Søndergård. There’s not much time to pause for breathe in a busy symphony orchestra, so it’s back home and on to the next project.

Listen again to Radio 3 Live in Concert, BBC NOW from Brecon.

Laura’s tour diary part 1- Brecon

2014-12-09T10:28:16+00:00

Last month, BBC National Orchestra of Wales performed in Brecon, Aberystwyth, Bangor, and Llandudno as part of their tour to mid and north Wales. Laura Sinnerton kept a diary of the tour – exploring what life is like on the road with the orchestra.

Thursday 27 November
November is drawing in dark and cold. Over the last few days, I've been wrapping up warm when leaving the house (gloves in particular now being a must) only to have to strip off a dozen layers when entering the sub-tropical micro-climate of the Hoddinott Hall studio. I've got fairly rubbish circulation, so a thorough warm up is necessary these mornings, and it's no small relief when I feel my fingers begin to relax into the familiar movements of my daily exercises.

For this trip to mid and north Wales we are taking two programmes; one entitled ‘Pictures of Italy’ and the other ‘Celtic Impressions’. At this point in time, I am certain of only three things - firstly, I would very much like to be in Italy right now; secondly, the viola section spends quite enough of its time doing Celtic Impressions (of me!); and thirdly, both programmes are rather note laden!

We are joined by young Italian conductor, Francesco Angelico and two former BBC New Generation Artists - soprano Ruby Hughes and mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnston. In rehearsal, it feels like there is a lot of music to get through; the Italian programme on its own contains seven separate works. Psychologically, there’s something about that which makes the rehearsals feel extra-intense.

The drive to Brecon is really quite short and the weather is decidedly better than that predicted by the Met Office which gives us the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the Beacons. My travelling bud, Emilie, and I arrive in plenty of time for a cuppa and a bite of lunch before rehearsal at our first venue,Theatr Brycheiniog.

Theatr Brycheiniog

I always think that Theatr Brycheiniog is an exceedingly attractive theatre. The facilities are good, there is a lovely little cafe attached to it, and the canal outside the theatre’s front entrance is very picturesque. It has a really pleasant stage crew who are always a good giggle too. The auditorium itself is very intimate and it is always nice to see a good turn out here.

The afternoon rehearsal gives us the opportunity to get used to the dry theatre acoustic. In a theatre acoustic, the sound is very immediate and there isn’t the same ‘ring’ as one gets in a studio or purpose built concert hall (the directness of the opening chords of Verdi’s ‘Force of Destiny’ Overture are something of a jolt). This immediacy means that you have to pay particular attention to the attack of notes and also to how you leave a note; without due care, there is the danger that the sound can be thin and lacking in body, and can be particularly tricky in passage work such as is found on pretty much every page of tonight’s Mendelssohn Italian Symphony. For us string players, this means working a lot harder to create warmth and roundness in the sound, supporting more mindful bow usage with at times a more intense vibrato than normal.

After a hearty dinner (pheasant and venison sausages from the cafe, in case you’re wondering) and a preconcert talk by Donal ‘The Professor’ Bannister (Principal Trombone), the concert passes off very well and tonight’s soloist, Ruby Hughes, is well received by the audience. Somehow I’ve not played the Italian Symphony before this patch of work, and I am glad to get my first performance of it over. It has quite a few awkward little bits, and we play quite constantly throughout, so I am feeling rather pooped by the end of the concert.

Radio OB van

I try to get a fairly early night, as following day’s is quite a long one, not to mention the fact that tomorrow’s programme is also rather full of notes! So, one concert down, three to go: next stop, Aberystwyth!

Listen again to the Brecon concert in Radio 3 Live in Concert, BBC Now

A winter warmer to banish the November chills

2014-11-18T11:26:04+00:00

In this coming afternoon concert at BBC Hoddinott Hall, we will be joined once again by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Elena Urioste. Every so often you hear a young soloist who really makes you sit up and for me, Elena Urioste is one of those artists. Her sound is warm and golden, yet muscular and powerful, and if you heard her perform Barber’s Violin Concerto with us last season you will know that her sound is coupled with a phenomenal technical control. On this occasion, she will perform Korngold’s Violin Concerto.

Elena Urioste

I first heard the Korngold Concerto about nine years ago when I purchased James Ehnes’ recording of it (the recording also includes the Barber and Walton Concertos and if you don’t have the recording please add it to your Christmas lists now - it is amazing). I only really knew Korngold as a composer of film music at the time, and the concerto just blew me away. The weather may be rubbish at the minute, but this concerto will have you leaving the hall with the warmest of feelings in your soul.

Also on the programme is Zemlinsky’s The Little Mermaid. Sadly, this is nothing to do with the music from the Disney animation of the same name, which is a shame as I do a wonderful rendition of ‘Under The Sea’ in the style of Sebastian the Lobster. Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of Zemlinsky’s writing, so I’m looking forward to getting to know another one of his scores. George Loomis (writing for ‘Musical America’) describes the work as a ‘big, lush, post-romantic orchestral extravaganza’, which sounds pretty much right up my street.

Zemlinsky entitled the work an ‘Orchestral Fantasy after Hans Christian Andersen’ and it is a strongly programmatic work, although like the symphonic tone poems of Strauss and Sibelius, the work stands on its own most convincingly even if one is not familiar with the story. The work was composed between 1902 and 1903, shortly after the demise of Zemlinsky’s relationship with a female student - Alma Schindler. Zemlinsky was devastated by the end of the relationship, not least because in no short space of time Alma had married and become, of course, Alma Mahler, wife of the composer Gustav Mahler.

Elena Urioste

You know the question ‘if you could invite anyone, living or dead, to dinner - who would you invite’? Well, Alma Mahler is one of my hypothetical dinner guests (violist Rebecca Clarke is another, but that’s a subject for another blog post). Last season, I attended a wonderful concert by our Welsh National Opera neighbours which included not only some works by Alma, but also excerpts from her diaries (beautifully read on the evening by actress Tamsin Greig). Alma Mahler is so often portrayed as, at best, a muse to some of the European art scene’s brightest stars, or, at worst, as some sort of femme fatale who had love affairs with lots of famous men. What is often overlooked is the fact that until her marriage to Gustav Mahler, she was also a much celebrated composer. It was more Mahler’s insistence that she curtail her compositional efforts that has perhaps robbed us of a much larger output from Alma, than Alma’s inability to compose.

However, I (typically) digress. This programme is a real winter warmer. The music is full of big, broad brushstrokes of sound that you can just let wash over you as you close your eyes and enjoy. Come out of the cold weather and be uplifted by this gorgeous programme. We hope to see you there.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ Afternoon Concert is on Tuesday 18 November, 2pm, at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay. For tickets and more information, visit the Orchestra website or call 0800 052 1812.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Children in Need

2014-11-12T13:32:19+00:00

I am one of those people who really enjoys watching as autumn gradually gives way to winter and the nights draw in. Growing up in north east Antrim, the autumn and winter were full of traditional festivals that we celebrated with great gusto. First came harvest with all the wonderful colours and the beautiful fruits of the farming community’s labours, then came Hallowe’en when my family allowed me and my cousins to cavort around my Aunt Jane and Uncle Maurice’s garden in witches' capes fashioned from bin liners, with toffee apples ensuring the next trip to the dentist would be worthwhile. Then there was Christingle (my paternal grandmother grew up in a Moravian church) and the Christmas season. Warmth, security and family love were very much the order of the day.

Something else that was always a constant was the night in mid-November when my parents would let me stay up late to watch the BBC’s Children in Need. My school would run a series of fund-raising events in the run up to the big night, and I always had a sense of it being something that the country as a whole was involved in and benefitted from.

Pudsey Bear and orchestra sign

The older I get the more I understand how privileged I was to have such an (in many ways) idyllic, old fashioned childhood, and I am delighted that we at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be heavily involved in this year’s Children in Need once more.

Katherine Jenkins

On Friday 14 November, we will be performing in Newport as part of BBC Cymru Wales’ contribution to Children in Need. It will be a thoroughly home grown affair with special guests Katherine Jenkins and Wynne Evans to name but a few. I’ve also been told that we will be seeing Derek Brockway as we have never seen him before - the mind boggles!

Music and philanthropy have always gone hand in hand, right back to Haydn’s day and no doubt before it. Perhaps it is because the arts offer the potential to enrich our everyday lives, tapping into a part of us that is not driven by material gain. Perhaps it is because music can tap into a part of the human psyche that helps us look beyond our own personal situation, if only for that moment. Whatever the reason, it is a privilege for us to be involved.

If you go to the BBC Children in Need Homepage, you can read about all the charities in your area that have been helped by CiN. One such charity is the National Deaf Children’s Society, who were closely involved with a project the orchestra developed last year, engaging with the deaf, deafened and hard of hearing community. It was an exceedingly successful and rewarding project, and I am delighted that The National Deaf Children’s Society is one of the charities supported by CiN.

Pudsey Bear with orchestra members

These are charities working in YOUR area, working, often with exceptionally limited resources, to help our neighbours who have never had the privileges and security I know that I have taken for granted. So, dig deep! Don’t just donate - read about the charities being supported, and if you have any spare time, see how you can get involved. We hope you will be able to watch us on the evening, for what is guaranteed to be a lot of fun, but will have a very serious message at its core.

To find out more about BBC Children in Need’s work in your area, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/childreninneed

BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be performing in Newport on Friday 14 November, as part of inserts broadcast live on BBC One Wales.

Fancy the chance to meet the team who produce the music for Doctor Who? BBC NOW are auctioning off the chance to observe a recording session for the Doctor Who soundtrack – visit the BBC Radio 3 website for more information.

Elgar and the oratorio

2014-11-05T13:08:39+00:00

If you caught the opening night of the BBC Proms 2014, you would have heard our wonderful BBC National Chorus of Wales performing alongside our BBC Symphony Orchestra colleagues in Elgar’s oratorio ‘The Kingdom’. This week, you will have the opportunity to hear the Chorus in concert with us at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, as we perform what is perhaps Elgar’s greatest oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius.

BBC National Chorus of Wales. Photograph © Betina Skovbro

The Dream of Gerontius was composed by Elgar in 1900, just one year after the Enigma Variations (if you don’t know the Enigma Variations, you’ll recognise the Nimrod theme!). The oratorio was a form that Elgar returned to several times over his career (his first was the Light of Life in 1896, then after Gerontius came The Apostles in 1903, and The Kingdom in 1906), but what exactly is an oratorio?

An oratorio is a large scale work normally requiring a large symphonic orchestra, a chorus, and soloists. The work will normally have strong narrative arc, but unlike an opera, it is generally performed without costumes, scenery, or stage direction. Until the mid-seventeenth century, the oratorio was almost exclusively sacred in subject matter, although they became increasingly secular in later times – although not exclusively, as in the case of The Dream of Gerontius and Elgar’s other oratorios.

The text for Gerontius comes from a poem by Cardinal John Newman. The libretto is highly romantic in language, indeed, may I suggest, a touch gothic in its depiction of a soul’s journey from death to purgatory. This high drama is depicted with great musical indulgence by Elgar; when listening to this work, I always try to bear in mind how progressive Elgar’s harmonies must have sounded to listeners in Victorian England.

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

The work was premiered at the Birmingham Music Festival in 1900 and received a rather tepid response (perhaps the audience chairs were not particularly comfy - I always think an Elgar oratorio requires a comfortable chair). However, I doubt greatly that this was simply down to the rather progressive (for the time) nature of the music.

Whilst Elgar was for the majority of his life a rather noncommittal Roman Catholic, the libretto of Gerontius is steeped in high Catholic theology and ideology. Victorian England was dominated by the Church of England, with the popularity of other Protestant denominations on the rise. Thus, to many, the subject matter of Gerontius, and therefore the work as a whole, must have seemed, at best, exotic, at worst, outdated and incomprehensible. This is a shame because it’s pretty epic stuff.

The Chorus plays several roles within the work - friends of the dying man, angelic assistants, a chorus of demons, souls in purgatory - and really does get some of the greatest moments! The role of Gerontius is sung by a tenor voice, the role of the Priest by a bass, and the Angel by a mezzo soprano.

Mark Wigglesworth, the conductor for Friday's performance of The Dream of Gerontius. Photograph © Sim Canetty-Clarke

The orchestral music is quite a play (it feels like the violas play without stopping for the entirety of the work - a good dinner will be required beforehand). To me, the Orchestra’s role is like that of a narrator. In the Prelude to Part One and the Prelude to Part Two, the orchestra sets the tone for what is to come, and introduces various ideas that will be musically explored and developed later. In the absence of set and scenery, the orchestral accompaniment provides both these things throughout.

I make no secret of the fact that I can neither relate to, nor bring myself to like the Elgar of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, but the Elgar of the two symphonies, of the tone poems, etc. - that Elgar I love. Gerontius is a wonderful example of Elgar’s symphonic writing, with the excitement of a massive choir added. It is quite a spectacle to see and hear, at times overwhelming in its intensity, at times deeply touching. I hope you can join us on Gerontius’ journey to experience it for yourself.

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, on Friday 7 November, 7.30pm. For more information on the performance, visit the Orchestra’s website. The concert will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Something for all the family

2014-10-15T07:02:53+00:00

Over the next few weeks, we will be involved in the UK-wide Family Arts Festival. This festival incorporates all areas of the arts - dance, music, theatre, craft, art, you name it, there is an event for it.

In the social climate of today, we only have to click a button to receive instant entertainment. Without leaving the comfort of one’s own home, it is possible to navigate the greatest treasures of the world’s most famous museums, and to peruse the collections of the finest galleries. One can watch the full gamut of entertainment via sites such as YouTube, where you can view everything from 24 Hours With the Royal Ballet (one of my favourites, my Edward Watson obsession continues on apace), to a dog balancing stuff on its head (a favourite of our lower brass). No matter what your heart desires, there is probably an app for it.

However, is this really experiencing art? Undoubtedly, the internet, the TV, the cinema, etc are all great platforms from which we can find and nurture a burgeoning interest in an art form, but can it be said to replace the actual physical experience of standing in front of a Rodin bronze, watching Tamara Rojo fouetté across a stage, seeing Shakespeare performed live (even Henry IV Part 2 benefits greatly from an actual performance), or indeed experiencing the spectacle of a full symphony orchestra playing on stage?

The Family Arts Festival aims to address this by highlighting events across the United Kingdom, and the majority of these events range from free, to less than it would cost to take a family to the cinema.

Players from BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Image Credit: Benjamin Ealovega

We are delighted that two of our concerts have been highlighted by the festival. Firstly, our second trip to the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts on 17th October, when we will present a concert of favourites from both the orchestral repertoire, and from stage and screen. Ahead of our UK-wide tour with the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, we will be performing both old and new Doctor Who music, as well as works included in our recent cinematic debut, Ten Pieces.

Our second event included in the Family Arts Festival is our ever popular (with both audiences and players, who always love the chance to dress up!) Halloween Spooktacular. This concert takes place on 26th October at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, and early booking is highly recommended! Here you will get the opportunity to see the Orchestra play alongside members of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, in a spooky themed concert. It is a great privilege for us to have the opportunity to work with some of Wales’ finest young musicians again.

BBC NOW's Halloween Spooktacular

These are concerts that are designed to be universally popular, but I would encourage parents not to be anxious about bringing children to our regular concert series too - it is a pleasure to see youngsters being brought along. If you are concerned about your child having a ‘moment’, you can request a seat close to an aisle or an exit for swift getaways, or just to be able to give them a little time out. Rest safe in the knowledge that we think a good deal of you for giving your little one the opportunity to hear live music, and you will be wholeheartedly welcome!

Tickets for the Orchestra’s family concerts are available by visiting the BBC NOW website or by calling the BBC NOW Audience Line on 0800 052 1812.

For more information about the Family Arts Festival, visit their website.

Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts

2014-10-10T08:09:21+00:00

Prior to the opening of our Swansea Season proper in December, we will be making two trips to the newly-refurbished Brangwyn Hall as part of the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts this October.

The first of these visits (on Saturday 11 October) will also see the orchestra continuing its year-long celebration of the life, work and influence of Dylan Thomas as we perform John Corigliano's 'A Dylan Thomas Trilogy'.

This is a large-scale work for orchestra, chorus, and a number of soloists. We are delighted not only to be joined by our own BBC National Chorus of Wales, but also by the BBC Singers who are celebrating their 90th anniversary this season!

Now, it may seem like an odd tribute to have a New Yorker make the major contribution to this programme. However, I think it is an excellent example of how far-reaching Thomas' influence as a poet was, and remains to this day. Many of our audience will, perhaps unwittingly, be very much aware of John Corigliano through his film scores - in particular the score for The Red Violin, performed for the film by Joshua Bell.

John Corigliano

Corigliano discovered the work of Dylan Thomas while still a student, and so began an unending love affair with the Welshman's writing. On his website, Corigliano talks about the musicality of Thomas' language. This is something that I very much hear myself, and I think it is characteristic of the Welsh tongue in general - the rises and falls, the lilts and the lulls of each nuance found in the spoken word. Perhaps I only notice this in contrast to my own rather guttural Northern Irish tones!

John Corigliano A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (1976 - revised in 1999) - an oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Originally considered to be a work for soloists, chorus and orchestra based on a sacred text (think Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, etc), in recent years, the nature of the oratorio has changed somewhat.

Nowadays, an oratorio can be based on any writing whether sacred or secular, although it remains different from opera in that there is no acting involved, and little or no costume or set. Perhaps, it is more the case that today the texts or subjects used are those personally sacred to the composer, for example Schnittke's 'Nagasaki', Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, or Richard Einhorn's The Origin, based on the writings of Charles Darwin.

The work is drawn from three poems – Fern Hill, Poem in October and Poem on his Birthday – and the work is drawn together by Author's Prologue. You might find it interesting to familiarise yourself with these poems before the concert, although I'm sure the music will speak for itself.

Dylan Thomas recording at the BBC in 1948

We have a stellar line up of soloists to bring to our Swansea audience. A Dylan Thomas Trilogy has an air of 'the ages of man' and this is reflected in the voices. We will be joined by treble, Michael d'Avanzo, a chorister at Hereford Cathedral, my fellow country man, the wonderful Robin Tritschler (tenor) who is a current BBC New Generation Artist, and by one of my favourite baritones, Roderick Williams. You may have spotted him on the Last Night of the Proms from the Royal Albert Hall with our BBC Symphony Orchestra colleagues - what a voice!

It is always a pleasure to return to Swansea; the warmth of welcome the orchestra receives there is wonderful. We return to the Swansea Festival on the 17 October for a family concert that is also part of the UK-wide Family Arts Festival. Now that we are back in the Brangwyn, I personally shall also be returning to my favourite fish and chip shop, and shall be enjoying my whatever-the-weather pre-concert ice cream from a certain ice cream parlour near the hall!

If you would like to hear more oratorio with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, book your tickets now to hear Elgar's glorious Dream of Gerontius on 7 November at St David's Hall, Cardiff.

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform John Corigliano's A Dylan Thomas Trilogy on Saturday 11 October as part of the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts – visit the BBC NOW website for more info and for tickets.

Ten Pieces: Engaging children with classical music

2014-10-09T11:33:43+00:00

At BBC NOW HQ, it feels like we have been talking about the BBC Ten Pieces project for a very long time. Somehow, I can't believe we've actually got round to the cinema launch date!

I'm sure by now you will have heard something about this ambitious nationwide project that the BBC has embarked upon. The project will see more than 100,000 school children across the United Kingdom get acquainted with nine pieces of core repertoire, and a new work by one of Britain's brightest young composition stars, Anna Meredith (you may have seen the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain perform her work HandsFree at the 2012 BBC Proms).

The Ten Pieces film is in cinemas and schools throughout the UK from 6th October 2014.

It feels like eons ago since we spent a number of days in an airport hangar in deepest, darkest Wales. We were coached out to the 'top secret' location - it felt a bit odd turning up in our concert finest to what was essentially a large field with a few cows in it - and then ushered into the hangar.

The first thing that struck me was how huge the space was! Dark, cavernous, and completely empty but for the orchestra and the lighting and camera rigs, the hangar made an impressive, blank stage upon which to create some magic with lights, a little bit of smoke, and (if you've now seen Ten Pieces you will also know) a lot of water.

The hangar where BBC NOW recorded Ten Pieces. Image: Guy Levy

Filming is a much more start/stop process than recording. During soundtrack recordings when we finish a take we very quickly move into another take, or onto another cue, almost without pause. However, because of the necessity of resetting lights, camera positions and sometimes special effects, there is often a lot of sitting around between takes in filming.

To be honest, I even found the sitting around interesting. TV and cinematic production is a form of sorcery, and it was fascinating to watch how various effects were created. Lighting effects certainly added an extra energy to some of the works - playing Mars from Holst's Planet Suite bathed in an ominous red glow definitely helped to create the war-like feeling.

A member of the orchestra during filming. Image: Guy Levy

My favourite effect, however, came at the end of Night on The Bare Mountain (when the bells toll for the breaking of dawn). To signify the day breaking and the end of the frolicking of all the evil beasties, the hangar doors were slowly opened to allow a sliver of bright light to fall across the orchestra. It was really quite beautiful, even if, at the time, the most astonishing thing about it was that it was so sunny outside - inside the hangar there was no sense of time at all as there was no natural light whatsoever!

Amusing things happen during recording of any type - for one work it was felt that the cameras couldn't get quite the right passing close up shot of the faces of the woodwind, so the players were asked to play with their stands about six feet away from them in order to create a little track for the cameras to travel between the stands and the players. The stands, of course, were then too far away for any of the players to read, so they had to play the movement by memory or by dint of much squinting.

BBC NOW's Principal conductor Thomas Søndergård. Image: Guy Levy

Of course, Ten Pieces is about much more than our on-screen cinematic debut. It's also about a lot more than just Ten Pieces. It is an unprecedented, organised attempt to engage children with classical music.

There are follow up projects, ambassadors, champions, and a plethora of other material created for the project. If your child has seen Ten Pieces we would love to hear from you. If they enjoyed it, why not bring them along to see the spectacle live?

See the Ten Pieces film for yourself with BBC iPlayer.

Brahms in Bristol

2014-10-07T12:49:57+00:00

Regular readers of this blog will know that Brahms holds a very firm place in my Holy Square of composers (Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Britten, just in case you haven’t picked up on my fundamentalism yet). So, imagine my face when I realised that we would be part of BBC Radio 3's celebration and exploration of the work of Johannes Brahms.

For five days, BBC Radio 3 will be taking a look at the life and work of Johannes Brahms with a series of concerts in Bristol from St George's and Colston Hall. The week will feature performances by the Skampa Quartet, Daniel Hope, Sebastian Knauer, the BBC Singers, Charles Owen, Katya Apekisheva and Stephen Kovacevich. There will also be talks throughout the four-day event by eminent speakers.

Johannes Brahms

Our contribution to the Brahms-aganza takes place on 8 October at the Colston Hall under the baton of our Conductor Laureate, the much loved, Tadaaki Otaka. It is a pleasure for us to be joined, yet again, by two fabulous young German artists, Veronika Eberle and Andreas Brantelid in Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, and we will also perform the Academic Festival Overture and the Symphony No 1 in C minor.

Many will know the story of how it took Brahms an incredibly long time to get round to writing his first symphony. So awed and humbled was he by Beethoven's contribution to that genre that somehow, the young Johannes couldn't quite screw up the courage to present his first symphony to the world. He kept the bust of Beethoven in his study, glowering down at him, which probably didn't help. However, I always feel very glad that he eventually got over that fear!

Tadaaki Otaka. Photo: Masahide Sato

We often see Brahms' music as a bit of a comfort blanket. We see his music as a fail-safe, go to crowd pleaser. After a prolonged period of relatively unknown works, it is not uncommon to hear the refrain (from both audience and players alike) 'Ooh, why can’t we have a nice bit of Brahms?', but I believe to think of his music in this manner is an insult to both the beauty of the writing and the genius of the man.

This music is so much more than just a lovely bit of mindless high romanticism to put on in the background. We imagine Brahms as this genial, grandfatherly, bearded figure, but he was so much more than that. Brahms was a deeply passionate man, an exceedingly loyal man, a man who confessed to be 'dying of love' for Clara Schumann, yet, it would appear, never acted on these out of love and loyalty for his great friend, Robert Schumann. His music is a love song to the German composers who came before him, but is also the conduit by which the Germanic musical tradition forged its way though the 19th and into the 20th century. Without Beethoven there may have been no Brahms, but without Brahms it is highly unlikely that there would have been a Schoenberg or a Webern.

Colston Hall, Bristol. Photo: Liz Eve

Brahms' music is so much more than dots on a page. Take this opportunity to immerse yourself in Brahms' world and music. If you can, attend the talks or tune in to The Essay on Radio 3, and get to know this incredible music within its social and political context.

The Orchestra perform at Colston Hall, Bristol, on Wednesday 8 October. For ticketing information, visit the BBC NOW website.

Also, on 6 October you can hear BBC National Orchestra of Wales Principal Clarinet, Rob Plane, perform with the Skampa Quartet as part of this Festival at St George’s, Bristol. The concert has free Cavatina tickets for people aged between 8 and 25.

Find out more about Radio 3's Brahms Experience on the Radio 3 website.