大象传媒

Recorded yesterday at 大象传媒 Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Principal Guest Conductor Xian Zhang conducts her orchestra and chorus in a programme for International Women's Day. Radio 3 commissioned Kate Whitley to set the text by Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who hit the headlines when she survived a murder attempt by the Taliban in 2012. Speak Out declaims every girl's right to an education in the struggle against oppression, sung by both adult and children's voices. Latvian sisters Baiba and Lauma Skride join forces harmoniously in Mendelssohn's concerto for piano and violin, and Zemlinsky sets Hans Christian Andersen's tale of The Little Mermaid, whose beauty entrances her handsome prince with tragic consequences. Zemlinsky's music powerfully explores the adult themes of this story, written in the wake of his own betrayal in love by Alma Schindler, who left him for Gustav Mahler.

Kate Whitley: Speak out
Cor y Cwm (children's voices)
大象传媒 National Chorus of Wales
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Xian Zhang (conductor)

Mendelssohn: Concerto for Piano, Violin and Strings
Baiba Skride (violin)
Lauma Skride (piano)
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Xian Zhang (conductor)

8.20 Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to tonight's soloists, Baiba and Lauma Skride about their musical sisterhood and hears some of their latest chamber recordings of music from Nordic countries.

8.40 Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid)
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Xian Zhang (conductor)

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation.