Peter Donohoe is a legend among British pianists: an artist with fingers of steel and a heart of gold. “He's a lion of the keyboard but he's also a poet” writes The Herald, and today Donohoe explores the legacy of Frederic Chopin – with music by the great pianist-composers he inspired, as well as the tenderness, fantasy and romance of his own ever-popular Préludes.

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Steinway International Piano Series: Peter Donohoe

Bute Park

Mishka Rushdie Momen is a young British pianist who looks at the world differently: “innate musical sensibility combined with true technical brilliance” was how one critic described her special blend of poetry and passion. Schubert’s huge, haunting late sonatas begin and end a recital that embraces the melancholy of William Byrd and the exquisite, untamed imagination of Janacek’s On an Overgrown Path.

Steinway International Piano Series: Mishka Rushdie Momen

Llŷr Williams – virtuoso pianist and RWCMD artist-in-association – reaches the end of a musical odyssey, and brings his journey full circle with sonatas by Haydn and Mozart and miniatures by Schumann that are simply more beautiful than they can ever be played. Tonight he lavishes all his “consummate skill and awe-inspiring musicianship” on music that’s as fresh now as when it was first created.

Llŷr Williams Piano Series 2023-2025: Recital 6

Start your musical journey this January with Janáček’s immensely popular tragicomedy The Cunning Little Vixen. With short and pithy symphonic pantomime sections, inventively orchestrated to give each character their own rhythmic motif, this folksy suite is laden with lush harmony and a mood firmly drenched in nature and love.

Folk Tales & Fabled Love

Wales Millennium Centre

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

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The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

Principal Guest Conductor Jaime Martín leads us in a programme of French gems, starting with a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth. His luscious, magical, enchanting and playful score to the ballet Ma Mère l’Oye is based on classic fairy tales, from Sleeping Beauty and Little Ugly to Tom Thumb and Beauty and the Beast.

La voix humaine

Expressing the effects of global warming and the collapse of historic ecosystems, Cecilia Darmström’s ICE depicts through music the earth fighting for existence, and how we could rewind this process. British composer Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade’s Piano Concerto receives its world premiere with BBC NOW regular, Clare Hammond at the keys before we turn to the series’ namesake, Grace Williams. One of her earliest works, and believed to be the first symphony ever written by a Welsh composer, her dramatic First Symphony is inspired by fifteenth century Welsh rebel, Owain Glyndŵr.

'Grace' 2025

Soaring melody, quirky bravado, and fiendishly tricky virtuosity radiate in Bruch’s passionate Violin Concerto. From soloistic fireworks to its rich orchestral backdrop there is little wonder this concerto remains a favourite with soloists and audiences alike, and to perform we’re delighted to welcome back violin sensation, Eldbjørg Hemsing. Similarly passionate is Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony – striking climaxes give way to soulful solos, forceful marches to thunderous celebration, all based on one musical motif skilfully transformed and developed throughout.

Fireworks of Passion

Brangwyn Hall

Discover the latest in composition in Wales this spring as composers deserving of wider exposure have the opportunity to work with conductor Jac van Steen and Composer-in-Association Gavin Higgins on their latest orchestral composition.

Composition: Wales - Open Workshop

Discover the latest in composition in Wales this spring as composers deserving of wider exposure have the opportunity to work with conductor Jac van Steen and hear it come to life with BBC NOW.

Composition: Wales - Culmination Concert

Fanny Mendelssohn’s elegantly romantic Overture sets the mood for this concert of classical favourites. Rhapsodic melodies accented by pizzicato allusions lead the way to virtuosity and British bravado in Elgar’s much-loved Cello Concerto, although his post WW1 moroseness is never far from the surface, with assertive yet austere themes, a jaunty energy and meditative qualities. As soloist we welcome BBC NOW debutant, the multi award-winning cellist Bryan Cheng.

Elegant Romantics

Theatr Brycheiniog

Regarded by Beethoven as his greatest work, his Missa Solemnis is surely a ‘bucket list’ piece to experience and marvel at for all music lovers.

Missa Solemnis

Llandaff Cathedral

Snippets of folk-like tunes weave together in Holst’s kaleidoscopic Capriccio, and taking an equally central role in Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments are the Russian folk elements and original meaning of ‘symphony’, that of sounding together. Short litanies between the different instruments draw together contrasting episodes at three different but still related speeds.

Expressions of Folk

Busy whispers and buzzing excitement lead to gargantuan climaxes in Mozart’s ever-popular overture to the opera Le nozze di Figaro. Witty, scampering and joyful throughout, it’s the perfect opener to any concert. Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony foreshadows a similar elegant melodiousness – intended to symbolise Protestant Reformation, this symphony journeys through dramatic outbursts, aria-like solos and jaunty chorales towards triumph in the face of reform. To conduct we’re delighted to welcome Jörg Widmann to make his debut with BBC NOW.

Reformation & Invigoration

If historically serenades were intended as music for entertainment, then Brahms has most definitely excelled in his Serenade No. 2. This early work oozes Brahmsian character from the outset with its lilting warmth, lively cross rhythms, and plenteous melody to charm any listener.

Songs of Destiny

Caroline Shaw’s Punctum takes its musical inspiration from JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion, but twists the context of modular sequences with the inspiration of French post-structuralism to create a sensory palate of classicism without form; and from its Cantabile and lilting slow waltz to lively scherzos and humorous exuberance, Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings draws this concert to a joyous close.

Lesley's Lunchtime Concert

Step into the raucous court of the Duke of Mantua where Rigoletto, the court jester, uses vicious wit to conceal his tormented heart. In a world teetering on the edge of debauchery and deceit, his only joy is his daughter, Gilda. When the charming but womanising Duke sets his sights on Gilda, his actions set in motion a tragic chain of events where a father’s love and treachery collide in a crescendo of passion and heartbreak.

Rigoletto Verdi

Venue Cymru

Bristol Hippodrome

New Theatre Oxford

Theatre Royal Plymouth

Mayflower Theatre

Opera, with its catchy melodies and hummable choruses, is the perfect accompaniment to any life event and, in the movies, there are no shortage of moments to enhance. 

From Apocalypse Now, embark on a dangerous journey with the infamous Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner (Die Walküre), experience the rise and fall of The House of Gucci with Rossini’s exhilarating and energetic Largo al Factotum (The Barber of Seville), join James Bond on his mission in Quantum of Solace with Puccini’s epically profound Te Deum (Tosca) and more. Opera has officially transcended the operatic stage and gone mainstream! 

Opera Favourites at the Movies

Welsh National Opera Orchestra will fill the air with wonderful waltzes, pulsing polkas, and all the classics you’d expect with WNO’s unmissable take on the traditional Viennese New Year concert. 

A New Year’s Celebration WNO Orchestra

NPTC Group of Colleges - Newtown College

Bangor University

Swansea University Bay Campus

University of Southampton Highfield Campus

Hall for Cornwall

Continuing Welsh National Opera’s long-standing partnership with the programme, the latest influx of singers from their Young Artists’ Programme joins WNO in February 2024 for their annual week-long residency, culminating in a not-to-be missed showcase at the beautiful Donald Gordon Theatre within Wales Millennium Centre, under the accompaniment of WNO Orchestra. 

National Opera Studio Showcase

Two’s company: in the penultimate instalment of his “Exploring Genius” series, pianist Llŷr Williams is joined by the superb Polish violinist Maria Włoszczowska. Together, they explore the special magic that occurs when two artists join in a shared artistic vision – from the grace and wit of Mozart’s violin sonatas to Schumann’s final Violin Sonata, pure romanticism at its darkest and most impassioned.

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Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

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La voix humaine

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

'Grace' 2025

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Fireworks of Passion

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Composition: Wales - Open...

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Composition: Wales - Culm...

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Elegant Romantics

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Missa Solemnis

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Expressions of Folk

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Reformation & Invigoratio...

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Songs of Destiny

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Lesley's Lunchtime Concer...

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Rigoletto Verdi

Welsh National Opera

Opera Favourites at the M...

Welsh National Opera

A New Year’s Celebration ...

Welsh National Opera

National Opera Studio Sho...

Welsh National Opera

Llŷr Williams Piano Serie...

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama