大象传媒

大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall is the home of the 大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales. Part of the Wales Millennium centre, it provides the orchestra with a recording studio and concert hall with a 350 seat capacity. The hall is also an excellent venue for chamber music - as we'll discover in Radio 3's lunchtime concerts this week. During the afternoons, we'll be hearing from those artists who have given recitals here following them through to performances with the orchestra, and hearing 大象传媒 NOW in action in concert, in session, in Wales and beyond.

There's no direct link with our lunchtime today (live from Wigmore Hall). Instead, we hear from a recent Radio 3 New Generation Artist, mezzo Daniela Lehner, singing six Viennese songs which inhabit the twilight world of the impressionist poet Maurice Maeterlinck. This concert from 大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall also included Strauss's uplifting journey from dark to light, Death and Transfiguration. The hall also holds regular rehearsals with the 大象传媒 National Chorus of Wales. Chorus master Adrian Partington directs them in Stravinsky's setting of the Mass, a liturgical work written without a commission during the hard times Stravinsky suffered when he moved to America during the Second World War.

At four o'clock today we feature Russian music, following on from Martin Sixsmith's landmark series on the history of Russia on Radio 4. Both Rimsky Korsakov and Mussorgsky based their tone poems on works by Nikolai Gogol, the father of Russian realism. In turn they depict the violence of a witches' Sabbath and a village wedding in the Ukraine.

Presented by Katie Derham.