This weekend sees the BBC National Orchestra of Wales make its first 2013/14 season journey north, for concerts at St Asaph Cathedral, and also in Newtown.
In St Asaph we will perform at the closing concert of the 2013 North Wales International Music Festival. The festival began on Friday 20 September, and this year has featured performances by Catrin Finch, Peter Donohoe and the fabulous Swingle Singers to name but a few.
In this year of Britten celebrations, the festival was opened by Mid Wales Opera's performance of Noye's Fludde, Britten's ‘community' opera (I love the idea of audience participation in the opera's ‘hymns' - alas, I've never yet attended a performance of the work). It is fitting that we will close the festival with Britten's Four Sea Interludes from his opera, Peter Grimes.
The Interludes are one of my favourite works to play. Again, I was first introduced to them during my time in the Ulster Youth Orchestra. Actually, a lot of my introductions to a lot of great works were through various youth orchestras - the training and learning that time gives you is, undoubtedly, invaluable.
Anyway, back to the Interludes. As a violist, and I can't be alone in thinking this, I've always found Britten's music very satisfying to play (he was one of our elite club of alto clef enthusiasts). It's not that it is immediately gratifying and accessible technically, but once you've figured out the geography of the work and spent a bit of solo time on it, it all just seems to fall into place.
In my opinion, the difficulty with performing a work like the Interludes (and indeed, the Enigma Variations, which also feature in our programme), especially in a cathedral, is getting the balance right. Brass and percussion in a cathedral acoustic can easily overpower the strings, and unless the strings work very hard at keeping everything very ‘crisp' (a favourite request of our principal conductor, Thomas Søndergård), a lot of articulation and definition can be lost.
It is the role of the conductor to fine tune these details, using his skill and wizardry to tweak the balance in order that the right details come through - I am interested to see how conductor Owain Arwel Hughes approaches these challenges, especially as the acoustic the next day in Newtown is the polar opposite, very dry, with every detail exceptionally audible.
I do love going to St Asaph; the festival audience is always amazingly warm and receptive. That's something I really appreciate about Wales - the myriad festivals that happen well outside of Cardiff, the buzz that surrounds them, the fact that they really do form part of the heart of a community - it's just so healthy and, as a musician in these financially precarious times for the arts, so very encouraging and heartening.
On a more basic note, I also enjoy the trip to St Asaph because there is a great wee chippy round the corner from the cathedral that really doesn't look like much, but does the most lovely chips and curry. I think someday, someone should do a musician's guide to eating and drinking around Europe.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be performing at St Asaph Cathedral on Saturday 28 September, 7.30pm, and Hafren, Newtown on Sunday 29 September at 3pm. For ticket information visit the BBC NOW website.
