Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you can't have failed to notice that there's a lot going on at the BBC and around Wales regarding Dylan Thomas. 2014 marks the centenary of Thomas' birth, and the year that I have finally got around to discovering his work.
Dylan Thomas
A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to catch the Peter Blake exhibition on Under Milk Wood at the National Museum in Cardiff. I was utterly captivated by the incredibly intricate little collages, pencil drawings, and watercolours that not only told the story of Under Milk Wood, but also illustrated the story's dream sequences and gave form to the faces of its characters.
The exhibition introduced me to what is arguably one of Thomas' best known, and certainly most loved works, and I have been rather obsessed by the play ever since.
It is no surprise that Dylan Thomas was, and continues to be, an inspiration and influence to artists and musicians. His wordcraft is highly evocative, visceral, frequently emotionally super-charged stuff, and really does have a music of its very own.
On Monday afternoon, the Orchestra will perform on Radio 3, live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, as part of the BBC's Dylan Thomas Season, in a concert full of music inspired by this great Welsh poet.
The concert features music by Alun Hoddinott, Aaron Copland, and Daniel Jones, who was a member of Thomas' infamous Kardomah Set. We will also perform a commission from the Welsh Music Information Centre, Tŷ Cerdd, by Mervyn Burtch, entitled Four Portraits of Dylan Thomas.
Composer Daniel Jones recalls the start of his lifelong friendship with Dylan Thomas.
The work explores Thomas against the backdrop of locations linked intrinsically to his name, notably the Kardomah Cafe, Swansea, The Boathouse, Laugharne, and Brown’s Hotel, one of Thomas’ favoured watering holes in Laugharne.
My highlight of the concert is a work by one of my favourite composers - Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky was a big Dylan Thomas fan, and I was rather geekily delighted/disappointed to find out that, for many years, Stravinsky had been very keen on collaborating with Thomas on an opera. Can you imagine what that would have been like?! Sadly, Thomas' sudden death in 1953 extinguished the possibility of this collaboration - undoubtedly, I feel, a great shame.
Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (Dirge Canons & Song) is, I believe, a beautifully conceived work. The trombone has long had associations with funereal music and this work opens with four trombones, in canon, playing a dirge.
The music then gives way to a setting of Thomas’ great exhortation to struggle, 'Do not go gentle into that good night' - a fitting tribute perhaps for one who lived so madly, brilliantly, but alas, so briefly. This is unfolded by string quartet and solo tenor (here, my fellow countryman, the lovely Robin Tritschler), before the trombones return with their dirge.
I think it's a beautiful work, and although it is based on the twelve-tone principle (the use of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale often in a prescribed order, thus creating atonal music, that is, music without a key), it is extremely accessible.
I think it an exceptionally moving work; one gets a sense not only of the profound admiration Stravinsky felt for this incredible talent from Swansea, but also of the great sorrow he felt that his light was gone too soon.
The Orchestra’s Dylan Thomas concert is at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay on Monday 5 May, 7.30pm. It will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as part of Dylan Thomas Day.
