大象传媒

Penny Gore presents a week of programmes profiling the titled conductors of the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. Featuring concerts from Wales, the Proms, foreign tours and studio recordings, we explore how the members of the team bring their own musical ingredients to blend in the mix of the orchestra's programmes each season.

Jac van Steen, Principal Guest Conductor, joined the orchestra in 2005 and has become a particular champion of contemporary music in Cardiff, as well as encouraging young artists and appearing regularly with the orchestra in outreach activities.

We open with music from the orchestra's concert season at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, and continue with a world premiere. Jac first discovered the music of Christopher Painter during one of his regular composers' sessions with the orchestra last year. He was so impressed he encouraged 大象传媒 Radio 3 to commission a new work. Christopher set poetry by Vernon Watkins (one of Dylan Thomas's closest associates) in a new song cycle for soprano Claire Booth. Christopher was himself a composition student of Alun Hoddinott at Cardiff University, so it's particularly apt that his new work received its premiere at 大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall, the orchestra's studio base in Cardiff, just last month.

We also hear from Jac himself, live from Dortmund, where he is General Music Director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, and learn of his passion for Dvorak. Then we've more brand new music, part of another showcase studio event held a couple of months ago, encouraging new music from new composers. Mark David Boden's "Six Degrees" is an outstanding score - taking its theme from a book by English author Mark Lynas, detailing the predicted rise in temperature of the earth's climate. We hear a studio recording, a sneak preview, before Mark's score receives its public premiere, later this month at St. Andrews in Scotland, where it forms part of a concert to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the university. We also hear the fruits of Jac's most recent trip to Cardiff, a studio session with Radio 3 New Generation Artist Alexandra Soumm.

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet - Fantasy Overture
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor)

Painter: Furnace of colour for soprano and orchestra
Claire Booth (soprano)
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor)

Dvorak: In Nature's Realm
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor)

Boden: Six Degrees
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor)

Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Alexandra Soumm (violin)
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor)

Debussy: La Mer
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor).

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