Grace Williams

Composer of the Week's 80th anniversary celebrations continue as Donald Macleod delves in to the largely unknown riches of Grace Williams's orchestral music with Rhiannon Mathias.

Composer of the Week has been produced in Cardiff since 1999, so it's fitting that Donald is celebrating Welsh composers in this anniversary series. Following on from a live concert given in the BBC's Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff Bay, with the BBC Singers, Donald continues the story of Welsh music with programmes featuring music by Grace Williams, Hilary Tann, Morfydd Owen, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards and Rhian Samuel. This quintet of composers were all born in Wales, and much of their music finds inspiration in their Welsh roots. Collectively, their stories will take us from the 1890s to the present day.

Today Donald's guest is Rhiannon Mathias, a musician and the biographer of Welsh composer Grace Williams. Their survey takes in Williams's much loved Fantasia on eight Welsh Nursery Tunes, but they also consider Williams as a symphonist, and Donald discovers one of Williams; earliest orchestral compositions which has been recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as part of their ongoing project to record Williams' symphonic output.

Grace Williams: Symphony no. 2 (excerpt)
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley, conductor

Grace Williams: Ballads
IV: Allegro furioso
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley, conductor

Grace Williams: Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes
London Symphony Orchestra
Charles Groves, conductor

Grace Williams: Sea Sketches
I: High winds
III: Channel Sirens
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Tadaaki Otaka, conductor

Grace Williams: Elegy
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ryan Bancroft, conductor

Grace Williams: Symphony no. 2
I: Allegro marciale
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra
Vernon Handley, conductor