大象传媒

大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales - around Wales and beyond

Each season the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales gives concerts throughout the principality, visiting festivals and promoting its own seasons of 'North Wales Tours' as well as appearing in the South, including its home at 大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall. In this week of Afternoon on 3 we visit some of the festivals and venues through Wales, with comments from the players, and in Friday's programme we venture further afield and discover the strong ties between Wales and Italy.

Today - North Wales

It's a five hour coach journey up to the North for the Cardiff-based players of the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. It's a trip they make several times each year to fulfil their "national" role. We catch up with them in the company of Principal Guest conductor Jac van Steen on the border with England in Wrexham, Garry Walker raises the baton in the seaside holiday town of Llandudno, and from just a couple of months back, Rory MacDonald conducts Dvorak's ever-popular ninth symphony from the North Wales International Music Festival in St. Asaph, in the smallest ancient cathedral in Britain.

The St. Asaph Festival was founded in 1972 by Welsh composer William Mathias (he's buried here, just beside the cathedral), but for nearly two decades, Mathias taught at the university in Bangor an hour further West along the road. The orchestra is still a regular visitor to the Prichard Jones Hall here, set high on a hill overlooking the Menai Straits and the Isle of Anglesey. This afternoon we go back in the 大象传媒 archives to a concert from February 1985 conducted by William Mathias to celebrate the centenary of the university. This is the world premiere of his Anniversary Dances, written for the occasion. Presented by Penny Gore.

2.20pm
Weber: Der Freischutz Overture
Jac van Steen, conductor

2.30pm
Haydn: Symphony No. 70 in D major
Garry Walker, conductor

2.45pm
Mathias: Anniversary Dances
conducted by the composer

3.10pm
Dvorak: Symphony No.9 in E minor "From The New World"
Rory MacDonald, conductor.

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