London is set to host a spectacular array of events featuring the works of Sergey Prokofiev. From the dramatic ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Royal Albert Hall to chamber music performances at Wigmore Hall, and thrilling orchestral concerts at the Southbank Centre, this season promises to enchant audiences with Prokofiev's timeless compositions. Join us as we delve into these captivating musical experiences and celebrate the genius of Prokofiev.

Celebrating Prokofiev in London: A Year of Musical Masterpieces

London is set to host an array of spectacular concerts, bringing together the brilliance of Sergey Prokofiev and the lesser-known but equally captivating works of Grażyna Bacewicz. On September 12, the Royal Albert Hall will resonate with Prokofiev’s 'Romeo and Juliet' under the baton of Jaime Martín, featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and soloist Nemanja Radulović. Grażyna Bacewicz's thrilling Overture will open the evening. On September 21, Wigmore Hall will showcase pianist Peter Jablonski's skill with a program rich in Polish connections, including Bacewicz's intricate Second Sonata. Come November 1, the Barbican Centre will host Kirill Gerstein's rendition of Busoni’s colossal Piano Concerto, with Bacewicz's Symphony No. 2 adding depth to the orchestral feast.

Musical Celebrations in London: From Prokofiev to Bacewicz

Following the success of the release of their fifth studio album Mynd A’r Tŷ am Dro and a sold-out tour in the spring, Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog’s stunningly beautiful music will be performed with the Orchestra in a career spanning concert.

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Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog a'r Gerddorfa

Bangor University

Opening with Barry-born Grace Williams’ overture Hen Walia, which takes its inspiration from folk tunes, in particular the lullaby Huna Blentyn, we move on to Elgar’s quintessentially British and sumptuous song cycle, his Sea Pictures – a vivid musical portrait of the sea and its changeable characters. To perform this sensational work we’re delighted to be joined by Cardiff Singer of the World finalist Beth Taylor.

Pictures of Britain

Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Written for his dear friend Ferdinand David, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto oozes charm and elegance. Brimming with lyricism and structural inventiveness, it is little wonder that this concerto has firmly established itself as one of the most popular and best loved of all concertos. To perform we’re delighted to welcome rising star and multi award winner, Ellinor D’Melon.

Romantic Rhapsodies

Brangwyn Hall

First up, the UK premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances. Frenetic energy and a multicultural aural palette radiate in this depiction of the sounds of New York. The second UK premiere comes in the form of Elena Kats-Chernin’s violin concerto Fantasie im Wintergarten, written for tonight’s soloist, Emily Sun. Inspired by a 1920s silent film set in the fairground circus Wintergarten in Berlin, the concerto explores the contrast of love and betrayal – from light to shadow, tango to chaos, virtuosity to suspended lyricism. To close we turn to Huw Watkins’ Second Symphony, written during the pandemic this large scale work, whilst relatively short, packs a punchy delivery of ravishing texture and expansive melody.

BBC Now - Now!

Wales Millennium Centre

World renowned pianist Sir Stephen Hough joins BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft to launch the 2024-25 season in Swansea with a programme of Brahms and some of his most iconic works for piano.

Uncompromising and masterful, his First Piano Concerto remains a favourite with audience and performer alike. From the radiant slow movement to its jaunty finale, this concerto shows a fascinating blend of musical heritage with a progressive outlook that is uniquely Brahmsian.

Stephen Hough plays Brahms

Firecracker conductor Nil Venditti will lead us in this gala of operatic favourites. From Bizet’s iconic and seductive Carmen, to Donizetti’s yearningly romantic O mio Fernando, journeying via Puccini’s dramatically passionate and soaring Preludio Sinfonico and Mascagni’s hymnal Intermezzo Cavalleria there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Opera & Elgar with BBC NOW

NPTC Group of Colleges - Newtown College

Cameron Biles-Liddell’s Yr Afon Yn Yr Awyr, inspired by the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, explores the movement of water, from the flowing to the dancelike, the wild and energetic to the playful; before Welsh pianist Ellis Thomas joins BBC NOW to perform William Mathias’ First Piano Concerto in what would have been his 90th birthday year.

North Wales International Music Festival

St Asaph Cathedral

Sergey Prokofiev hoped his musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet would have ‘immediate appeal yet sound like nothing written before’. Even now, his score delivers on both fronts, showing the composer’s gift for melody and his ability to reconcile his music’s hard edge with a soft, romantic core. Jaime Martín conducts dramatic highlights from Prokofiev’s ballet score after charismatic Franco-Serbian soloist Nemanja Radulović sets off fireworks in the ultimate Romantic violin concerto. And, to begin, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales unleashes the strident energies of Grażyna Bacewicz’s thrilling Overture, which quotes the famous ‘V for Victory’ motif from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Prom 70: Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet

Royal Albert Hall

What better way to ease ourselves into the 2024-25 Hoddinott Hall season than under the baton of our new Principal Guest Conductor Jaime Martín. Opening with Brahms’ musical thank you – his Academic Festival Overture blends traditional students songs with cleverly quirky orchestrations and dynamics to showcase sweeping lyricism, humorous rambunctiousness and an irrepressible feeling of fun.

Also never short on creative ideas, Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto in an astoundingly short two weeks. Inescapable magic and rousing brilliance interweave enchanting simplicity, all crowned with crackling firework virtuosity from the solo violin, performed here by the fabulous Nemanja Radulović. A brushstroke of Dvořákian maturity is never more present than in his Sixth Symphony, with limitless lyricism, warm expressiveness and fiery Bohemian spirit never far from reach.

Festivals of Sound

Doctor Who makes its much-anticipated return to the Proms with a brand-new show celebrating the latest adventures of the Doctor. Showcasing Murray Gold’s epic music for the series performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Prom features sequences from the series on big screens, spectacular lighting and a host of special guest appearances – and, yes, there will be monsters! A concert like no other in all of space and time ...

Prom 48: Doctor Who Prom

Prom 47: Doctor Who Prom

With his Symphony No. 7 Beethoven permanently realigned Western music’s fundamental relationship with rhythm. In the process he created some of the most compelling music of his age. Young Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti places this momentous symphonic dance alongside music by a composer from the generation after Beethoven, one who picked up the master’s baton and ran with it: Louise Farrenc. The first half spotlights two Welsh composers born less than 40 years apart. Grace Williams’s jaunty Concert Overture, written in her mid-twenties, came ‘highly recommended’ after its entry in a Daily Telegraph competition in 1932–3. And Sir Karl Jenkins, one of the most popular composers of our time, wrote his Stravaganza especially for tonight’s soloist, Jess Gillam.

Prom 32: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony

Join BBC National Orchestra of Wales in BBC Hoddinott Hall this July to discover the story of a young girl Siân, the devastating effects of climate change on the habitats of penguin, polar bear and arctic tern and her mission to find a solution to make things better. How will she do it? What solutions will she discover? Join us to find out…

The Island of Never Too Late

Giuseppe Verdi was moved to write his Requiem by the death of friends and colleagues. The result was a high-octane work whose expression of grief, faith and judgement drew such dramatic music from its composer that some thought it profane. First performed 150 years ago, and given its British premiere at the Royal Albert Hall the following year, it is one of music’s most vivid masterpieces. Following his Prom with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales last night (see Prom 5), Ryan Bancroft returns this time with two choirs, lending suitably large forces for this powerful setting of the Latin Mass for the Dead.

Prom 6: Verdi’s Requiem

At a concert in Vienna on 25 January 1905, two new, constrastingly impactful orchestral works were heard for the first time. In his response to Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama on the doomed love between Pelleas and Melisande, Arnold Schoenberg (born 150 years ago) pushes a colossal symphony orchestra to its limits. But Alexander Zemlinsky wasn’t going to let Schoenberg (also his brother-in-law) steal the show, and wore his broken heart on his sleeve in his orchestral response to the well-known Hans Christian Andersen story The Little Mermaid. Ryan Bancroft marshals his BBC National Orchestra of Wales in two monumental tearjerkers that share far more than a birthday.

Prom 5: Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid

Shimmering ambiguity and transparent harmonies glisten with faintly Eastern inspired melodies, subtle nuance and sheer beauty in Debussy’s ground breaking Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, depicting the dreams and encounters of a mythical faun. Inspired by Whistler’s set of paintings of the same name, we then explore light and shade in his Nocturnes – From the sky to the sea we experience airily luminous melody alongside rustic rhythmic drive, and swirling water eerily interrupted by the songs of sirens at sea, a radiant thread added to the already exquisite tapestry of sound.

Gergely Madaras conducts...

All aboard for a fun-filled CBeebies musical ocean adventure for all the family! Take a deep breath and dive underwater in the concert hall submarine with its musical crew, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

CBeebies: Ocean Adventure with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Swansea Arena | Arena Abertawe

All aboard for a fun-filled CBeebies musical ocean adventure for all the family! Take a deep breath and dive underwater in the concert hall submarine with its musical crew, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

The spirit of Easter, although subtle, permeates this concert, with Harry Bicket returning to the helm of BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia kicks off the evening with his Zemira Overture, and sublime baritone Julien Van Mellaerts performs Bach’s Ich habe genug. With text recounting the purification of Mary, and pronouncing the desires of escaping earthly misery to be reunited with Jesus this work is a perfect fit for any Easter concert.

Let All The World In Every Corner Sing

Celestial, sparking lights glitter in this evening of ground-breaking music. Fauré’s suite from Pelléas et Mélisande opens in resplendent yet tumultuous style - The first musical setting of Maurice Maeterlinck’s play of the same name, which would inspire other composing greats, including Debussy, Sibelius and Schoenberg.

A Little Night Music

Caroline Shaw’s The Observatory sees its UK premiere – blending chaos and clarity, foreground and background, the piece is inspired by a trip to the Griffin Observatory near the Hollywood Bowl and explores new ways of looking at the universe, melding old and new in a stream of consciousness that never quite ends where it began.

Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra

Join us for a celebration of American classical music with our LA born Principal Conductor, Ryan Bancroft this May! Popular the world over, Barber’s Adagio for Strings is one of the most recognizable pieces in the orchestral repertoire and probably his best known work – used in film and television, and poignant for its performance at Roosevelt’s funeral and following the assassination of JFK, you’re sure to have heard this iconic piece!

American Explorations

The Riverfront

Featuring two world premieres and a gem of the choral repertoire, we’re delighted to welcome back the inimitable Sofi Jeannin alongside the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, Dame Evelyn Glennie and soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong.

Stardust and Souls

Striking a balance between the light-hearted and the noble, Elgar’s Enigma Variations is an ingenious collection of musical sketches of his friends and an astute self-portrait.

Enigma Variations

Grace Williams shows an early insight to the highly individual music she would compose in later years in tonight’s concert opener, her showcase for strings, the Elegy. From the dramatic Praeludium to its introspective Adagio, Nielsen’s Violin Concerto is a thrilling journey through harmony, gesture and mood, and we’re delighted to welcome the winner of the 2016 Nielsen Violin Competition, the Bulgarian virtuosi Liya Petrova as soloist.

Rachmaninov 2 with Martyn Brabbins

In celebration of the 100th birthday of Pierre Boulez, conductor Daniel Cohen joins BBC NOW for an evening of 20th Century gems, kicking off with Boulez’s own Livres pour cordes. Unsurpassable beauty and depth run deep in this angular and fragmentary work, which is nothing but lyrical throughout.

Boulez at 100

We celebrate 90 years since William Mathias’ birth with his Holiday Overture, written in 1971 specially for BBC NOW. We then move on to Karl Jenkins and the UK Premiere of his saxophone concerto, Stravaganza, written for tonight’s soloist, the sensational Jess Gillam. It wouldn’t be St David’s Day without any singing, so BBC National Chorus of Wales and the National Youth Choir of Wales take centre stage in Jenkins’ Dewi Sant, and a medley of your favourite Welsh tunes.

St David's Day Stravaganza

In a programme inspired by folk music, we’re delighted to welcome Japanese conductor Nodoka Okisawa to the podium. Jazz and blues style writing, meets funeral music and an unusually melancholic yet cheerful waltz in fellow Japanese musician, Toru Takemitsu’s 3 Film Scores. Developing her own unique compositional voice, Kikuko Kanai was one of the first Japanese women to compose Western classical music, whilst retaining her Okinawan musical heritage. Devoted to transcribing folksongs, she used these as the basis for her own works, including her Okinawa Fantasy Suite.

Folk Fusions – Japan meets Eastern Europe

Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft takes to the podium to conduct the world premiere of Composer-in-Association, Gavin Higgins’ A Monstrous Little Suite from his opera The Monstrous Child, before Håken Hardenberger makes a much anticipated return to BBC NOW for one of the finest concertos of its kind, Weinberg’s playful, suspenseful and witty Trumpet Concerto. With shadows of darkness, to a hobbling waltz, this concerto ingeniously quotes music from some of the most popular works in existence, from Bizet’s Carmen to Stravinsky’s Petrushka, from Mendelssohn’s iconic Wedding March to Mahler’s fifth.

Shostakovich 6 with Ryan Bancroft

From its bold and assertive opening phrase to the whimsical and playful finale, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is one of the most grand and daring work of its generation. First performed in 1798 by Beethoven himself, its origin remains mainly unknown; although we do know that this concerto was actually his second, it just happened to be published first, earning it the title of Concerto No. 1.

Shostakovich 13 with Ryan Bancroft

Kicking off the series is BBC NOW’s Composer-in-Association, Gavin Higgins, with the concerts world premiere, his Sarabande, before we turn to the exciting multi-award-winning Chinese American composer Tan Dun and his Three Muses in Video Game. This trombone concerto pays tribute to gaming music, whilst reflecting the traditional music of China - with its movements named after ancient Chinese instruments these distinctive sounds are the muse for orchestra and soloist alike. To perform we’re delighted to welcome Jrgen van Rijen, who also gave the works world premiere.

Bbc Now - Now!

Revel in the chance to hear a world premiere by our Composer-in-Association Gavin Higgins this new year.

Jaime Martin conducts...

Set on Isla Nublar, follow the story of Dr Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler as they battle for survival when the theme park’s newly revived dinosaurs escape their enclosures and seek to rule the Earth once more. Featuring stunning visual imagery and ground-breaking special effects, this action-packed adventure may not be your typical Christmas concert, but with BBC National Orchestra of Wales performing John Williams' epic score live to film, it is a more than fitting way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic film!

Jurassic Park in Concert

Utilita Arena Newcastle

Join BBC National Chorus of Wales with their artistic director Adrian Partington, alongside a massed Children’s Choir from schools across Wales for this glittering, annual Christmas festivity.

Carols for Christmas

Known as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and for co-founding the Cubist movement, it is surprisingly little know that artist Pablo Picasso was heavily involved in the costume design for many ground breaking ballets.

Playing Picasso

BBC Radio Cymru presents an evening with Elin Fflur and Band, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Come and enjoy some of Elin’s most popular songs with a full orchestra; Tudur Owen will also be asking Elin about her music, of two decades of performing and twenty years since ‘Harbwr Diogel’ was chosen as Cân i Gymru (A Song for Wales).

A Night with Elin Fflur

Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft joins us on the road again this autumn, kicking off the programme with Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers. From its vigorous liveliness and rhythmic drive to its brooding melodies and distinguished gleaming delicacy, the work is based on Lemn Sissay’s wonderfully dynamic and vibrant poem of the same name.

Dvořák 8 with Ryan Bancroft

Come and join us for this special collaborative concert featuring members of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales performing side by side with musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Side by Side with National Youth Orchestra of Wales

An air of magic imbues this concert, kicking off with Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Remarkable musical storytelling depicts an enchanted broom and the chaos that ensues. Truly spellbinding!

Scheherazade

Grace is our new series showcasing female composers and emerging Welsh talent, and in the inaugural concert of the series we’re delighted to welcome BBC NOW violinist, turned conductor, Emilie Godden to conduct the opening work.

'Grace' 2023

Opening with a programme inspired by French Burlesque of the 20s and 30s, the composers Jacques Ibert, Erik Satie, Germaine Tailleferre and Darius Milhaud all had one thing in common, alongside their more traditional compositions, they were all great early film music writers, so it is no wonder their music is so roaringly vivid and pleasantly picturesque.

CoLaboratory: Fiona Monbet

New Repertoire Announced For BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ Season Opening Concert

Season Opening Concert

Vibrant, charismatic and energetic Dutch conductor Antony Hermus joins BBC NOW in Cardiff and Newtown this September with a varied programme of Wagenaar, Mozart and Sibelius.

Antony Hermus conducts...

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Nil Venditti return to Brecon and Newport this September with a programme of Busoni, Bellini, Mendelssohn and our very own Grace Williams’ rhapsodic Violin Concerto with the prodigiously talented Geneva Lewis.

Visions of Italy

Theatr Brycheiniog

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martín present Holst’s epic suite The Planets alongside works by Grace Williams and Dora Pejačević.

Prom 32: Holst’s The Planets

Star pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason makes her solo debut at the Proms in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, in which rhapsodic melody meets restless rhythmic exuberance. Meanwhile Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 wrestles with its ominous ‘fate’ motif, overpowering it first with a rapturous love theme, before finally turning darkness to light in the powerful closing movement. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft return for the second of their consecutive Proms.

Prom 22: Isata Kanneh-Mason plays Prokofiev

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft return for the second of their consecutive Proms. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 is paired with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with soloist Isata Kanneh-Mason.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft present an all-American Prom with works by John Adams, Copland and Derrick Skye.

Prom 21: Adams, Copland and Skye

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has one of classical music’s most famous openings. This iconic four-note motif returns again and again. Is it a thunderclap – or fate, knocking at the door? Make up your own mind with the BBC NOW.

Prom 7: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

Carl Nielsen began work on his last symphony in the summer of 1924, at the north Danish seaside resort of Skagen. It was, he announced, to have ‘a different character than my others: more charming, smooth’. There would be something of the delightful conversational character of the recent Wind Quintet: ‘I think through the instruments – as though I had crept inside them.’ The symphony would have a title, Sinfonia semplice (‘Simple Symphony’), reflecting its ‘entirely idyllic character’.

Digital Concerts: Nielsen

BBC NOW perform the world premiere of David' Roche's Waves of Love

Digital Concerts: David Roche

BBC NOW perfrom Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Digital Concerts: Stravinsky

South African cellist Abel Selaocoe is redefining his instrument, blending traditional playing styles with improvisation, singing and body percussion.

CoLaboratory with Abel Selaocoe

Globally renowned cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins BBC NOW in this season closing concert for one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti.

Season Closing Concert

St David’s Dewi Sant

Born in Barry, Welsh composer Grace Williams had a particular love of writing for orchestra, and her Concert Overture, which we hear today under the baton of Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft, is a relatively early display of her gift in this genre. We hear this alongside one of Mozart’s final symphonies, his 39th, which is shrouded in mystery. Uncharacteristically Mozart in style, its slow and grand opening leads to an energetic allegro; a drifting andante bounds into the energetic Minuet, with its unforgettable tunes and bubbly arpeggiated features before jumping into the mischievous monothematic finale.

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perfrom Ravel's L'Aurore

Digital Concerts: Ravel

Digital Concerts: Helen Grime

With luscious shifting harmonies and the rhythmic vitality characteristic of his later style, Rachmaninov’s final complete composition, his Symphonic Dances, uses motifs derived from Russian Church music alongside quotes from his own first symphony

Symphonic Dances

Timothy Ridout and BBC NOW perform John Woolrich's Viola Concerto

Digital Concerts: John Woolrich

Imagine the days before motorcars, sitting on a bench in Central Park on a summers night… the sounds of night and the silence of darkness, the sound of street singers, night owls, piano ragtime, brass street bands and even a fire engine and this is the audio-painting Charles’ Ives creates in his Central Park in the Dark. It’s partner work from ‘Two Contemplations’, The Unanswered Question is less well-known but no less poignant. Often described as philosophy expressed in music, this relentlessly curious work deals with the “perennial question of existence”, and offsets three groups of instruments whose layers never quite come into sync.

The American Dream

Christian Curnyn conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as they perform works by Rebel, Purcell and Haydn.

Haydn's Nelson Mass

Imagine dancing dolls in a magical toy shop, and a pair of fabulous can-can dancers plotting to stay together at any cost and you have the charming story of La boutique fantasque. With its vibrant and whimsical music this ballet is a sequence of exquisite dances, each more lively than the last, which is nothing less than sheer joy to listen to.

Dancing & Deities

The Pacific ocean with its pounding waves, free flowing groove and sizzle on the sand provide the backdrop for Gabriella Smith’s Tumblebird Contrails. Keening gulls and playful ravens overhead, and a hallucinatory jet trail painting pictures across the sky mirror in the ebb and flow of the sea in this impressionistic musical portrait.

BBC NOW’s very own Principal Trombonist, Donal Bannister steps out of the orchestra and into the solo spotlight in a world premiere by Simon Wills, written specially for Donal, before Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft continues his exploration into the works of Charles Ives with BBC NOW, this time with his First Symphony. Meditative melodies contrast with energetic themes and hymn-like tunes meld with soaring lyricism in this encapsulatingly Romantic symphony.

Impressions & Meditations

Firmly established as a Christmas tradition for audiences across the globe, Handel’s Messiah is a true celebration of the nativity; exhilarating yet deeply emotional and resonant. Comprising a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and psalms from the Book of Common Prayer, Messiah brings some of the most evocative oratorio writing in the repertoire featuring ‘For unto us a child is born’, ‘The trumpet shall sound’ and the famous ‘Hallelujah’ chorus.

Messiah

Christmas Carols in cosy jumpers, children joyfully singing, readings by your favourite BBC Wales presenters and uplifting brass and percussion. What more could you need to get you in the Christmas spirit

Carols for Christmas - Swansea

Westend leading lady Louise Dearman takes to the stage alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Pete Harrison for an evening featuring your favourite Christmas tunes, all with a jazz and swing twist. From Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, to Sleigh Ride and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, plus a few surprises along the way, this lively Christmas cracker is perfect for all the family and sure to get you in the mood. So don your Christmas jumpers and festive hats, and join us in BBC Hoddinott Hall for a swingtastic feast of music.

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas Carols in cosy jumpers, children joyfully singing and uplifting brass and percussion. What more could you need to get you in the Christmas spirit?

Join BBC National Chorus of Wales’ artistic director Adrian Partington, alongside a massed choir from across North Wales for this glittering, annual Christmas festivity - the perfect Sunday afternoon treat for all the family.

Carols for Christmas - Wrexham

Wrexham University

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

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

2025 sees the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, so in celebration of his life we take his firecracker Ninth Symphony on the road to Aberystwyth and Bangor this March. Small in scale, but full of humour this symphony came as a surprise to everyone at its premiere, with its touches of slapstick, jaunty themes and spirited dance-like feel.

Shostakovich 9 with Christoph König

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

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

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

Back by popular demand, Fiona Monbet and her trio return to Cardiff for an evening of folky jazz alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

DEPOT Cardiff

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

Unrequited love pervades in Bartók’s Violin Concerto. Written for violinist, and Bartók’s muse, Stefi Geyer, this two-movement concerto is a musical showcase of her personality – lamenting melodies and whimsical leaps abound in this deeply personal rhapsodic outpouring. Champion of this virtuosic firework display is world-renowned violinist James Ehnes, who returns to BBC NOW by popular demand.

Notes of Love

Symphony Hall in Birmingham

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.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Nov 21, 2024

Dancing & Deities

Dec 5, 2024

Impressions & Meditations

Dec 12, 2024

Messiah

Dec 15, 2024

Carols for Christmas - Swansea

19 - 20 Dec, 2024

Christmas Celebrations

Nov 16, 2024

Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog a'r Gerddorfa

14 - 15 Nov, 2024

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BBC National Orchestra of Wales