BBC NOW play Kodály, Dvořák, and Brahms

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is joined by Jaime Martín, who conducts Kodály's Dances of Galánta and Brahms's First Serenade. Jonathan Roozeman appears as soloist in Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Brahms was slow to begin his symphonic career, at least in part due to a desire to match Beethoven's mastery of the form. His First Serenade was, in essence, a practise run at symphonic writing—but without the need for the moniker "Symphony". Nonetheless, the finished work has a sense of unity that belies its origins, and shows that Brahms was already a master in the making.

Zoltán Kodály's thrilling score for the Dances of Galánta draws from the gypsy music that was such an influence on him as a child growing up in western Hungary. The influence of Hungarian folk music was important to the three composers on the bill, and in the interval we'll explore this in more depth after hearing Dvořák's masterwork for the cello, his B minor Concerto, a perennial favourite of cellists and audiences alike.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, recorded in January at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff.

Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

8.35pm
Interval Music (from CD)
Dvořák: Zelenaj se, zelenaj (Moravian Duets, Op 32)
Bartok: Four Old Hungarian Songs
C Schumann: Soirees Musicales, Op 6 (Mazurka; Polonaise)

8.55pm
Brahms: Serenade No 1 in D major, Op 11

Jonathan Roozeman (cello)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jaime Martín (conductor)