Episode 1

A week devoted to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales pays tribute to Welsh composer Daniel Jones (1912-1993) in this his centenary year. Pembrokeshire-born Jones, close friend of Dylan Thomas, has a growing band of fans of whom Welsh cellist Paul Watkins can be counted. Today Watkins is the soloist in Jones's Cello Concerto with its lyrical slow movement in a concert from the Hafren, Newtown conducted by Andrew Gourlay. Dvorak's symphonic poem the Wood Dove, which reimagines the tale of a murderess spooked by the cooing of dove, begins the concert, and is coupled with the Prelude to Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger, and Beethoven's Symphony No.4. Afternoon on 3 begins with an exuberant and compelling early orchestral work by Englishman Frank Bridge, his Dance Rhapsody, written in 1908 before the composer became unsettled by the First World War. Threaded through the week, performed by a distinguished line-up of soloists and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, are piano concertos most of which could be labelled Romantic. Today we make an exception with a twentieth-century score by Scotsman, Eric Chisholm (1904-1965), his Piano Concerto No.1 'Piobaireachd' (Pipe music) concerto, a work infused with the soundworld and spirit of Highland Bagpipes.
Presented by Penny Gore

Bridge: Dance Rhapsody
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox (conductor)

2.20pm
Dvorak: The Wood Dove
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

2.35pm
Daniel Jones: Cello Concerto
Paul Watkins (cello)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

3.00pm
Wagner: Prelude from Die Meistersinger
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

3.10pm
Beethoven: Symphony no. 4
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

3.50pm
Eric Chisholm: Piano Concerto no. 1 'Piobaireachd'
Danny Driver (piano)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Rory MacDonald (conductor).