‘Grace’

Grace Williams
Ballads for Orchestra 18’

Elizabeth Maconchy
Serenata concertante 23’

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

Anna Semple
The Gates 10’

Julia Wolfe
Pretty 25’

Stephanie Childress conductor
Geneva Lewis violin

BBC Hoddinott Hall is certified by EcoAudio and we’re proud to be supporting the BBC in becoming a more sustainable organisation. For more information on the BBC’s net-zero transition plan and sustainability strategy please visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/documents/bbc-net-zero-transition-plan-2024.pdf

This concert is being broadcast live by BBC Radio 3 in In Concert; it will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds, where you can also find podcasts and music mixes.

1 Allegro moderato, alla canzone
2 Alla marcia solenne
3 Andante calmante
4 Allegro furioso

Ballads was commissioned by the National Eisteddfod of Wales and was premiered at the Eisteddfod on 10 August 1968 by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Charles Groves in Grace Williams’s hometown of Barry. Williams had originally intended to set ballads in Welsh for four vocal soloists and orchestra for this commission but eventually decided to compose ballads for orchestra only after failing to find suitable texts. The resulting piece shares some common features with her earlier Penillion (1955) – both are four-movement orchestral suites that draw inspiration from the cerdd dant tradition of improvised singing to a harp tune – but in Ballads Williams introduces new colours to her declamatory musical style and makes bolder use of dramatic contrasts, both between and within movements.

Although the piece doesn’t have a specific programme, the opening ballad could be described as a majestic proclamation: here, the richly embellished melody first stated on the oboe – a melody evoking ‘the rise and fall of Welsh oratory’, in the composer’s words – is repeated and elaborately commented on by different instruments. The second ballad’s slow march theme begins in sombre mood but gradually becomes more boisterous and sardonic as the movement progresses. The chiming bell and undulating viola melody heard at the opening of the third ballad hint at a more tranquil landscape but the peace is interrupted by a jazzy clarinet flourish, and then ferocious fanfares in woodwind and brass, before returning to source after a brief echo of the clarinet phrase. The final ballad (memorably likened by Williams to ‘a dance – or a tournament – or a chase’) contains music of explosive energy and rhythmic verve, with a more meditative central episode offering a moment of repose amid the chase. 

^{Programme note © Rhiannon Mathias}

1 Lento – Andante con moto
2 Scherzo: Allegro molto
3 Andante con moto
4 Allegro vigoroso – Andante tranquillo

Geneva Lewisviolin

Elizabeth Maconchy grew up in rural Ireland and began writing music aged six, later studying with Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. Vaughan Williams encouraged Maconchy to pursue a career in composition and they remained lifelong friends, but stylistically they were quite different. Maconchy became attracted to the modernism of composers such as Bartók and Janáček, prompting her to travel to Prague to study with composer-conductor Karel Boleslav Jirák.

Maconchy’s suite The Land was performed to great acclaim at the Proms in 1930, launching a career that included regular BBC broadcasts of her work. By the 1960s she was enjoying a series of commissions for the BBC’s Thursday Invitation Concerts, as well as a commission from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Serenata concertante. Maconchy had been focusing on operatic writing, and found returning to purely instrumental composition ‘a very different cup of tea’. The work was rehearsed in a Birmingham YMCA before its premiere conducted by Hugo Rignold with violinist Manoug Parikian – who was also the soloist in the only recording of the work. After the premiere, Maconchy wrote to fellow composer Grace Williams – a friend since their RCM student days – that ‘the audience really seemed very enthusiastic which was nice’.

The Serenata concertante opens with an arresting trumpet fanfare before more delicate textures unfold: harp, oboe, then the solo violin. Motifs established early on provide material for the whole work. What follows – including a propulsive Scherzo and spellbinding slow movement – shows Maconchy’s exceptionally deft handling of texture and colour. The motifs are passed among the instruments in a way that seems to generate the work’s structure organically, swelling and receding, the violin part sometimes immersed, sometimes soaring above the surface, unleashing bursts of virtuosity – until, at the very end, it drifts into the ether.

^{Programme note © Joanna Wyld}

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

The Gates was written in 2017 for the Malcolm Street Orchestra in Cambridge, and was originally scored for small chamber orchestra and offstage trumpet. The piece plays around with the idea of recall and the subjectivity of memory.

The title itself came from an image I had in my head of a massive set of gates, and the sensation of moving slowly away from them, trying to recall the details exactly and ultimately failing, but still retaining something of the imprint of the original once it was no longer in sight. Near unison, imitation and indeed the very idea of similarity have difference at their core, and I wanted to explore these elements musically to illustrate this subjectivity. I was keen that the piece was left open-ended – as a fanfare I think it’s important that it opens the ears of the listener to the possibilities of what could happen next.

^{Programme note © Anna Semple}

The word ‘pretty’ has had a complicated relationship to women. It implies an attractiveness without any rough edges, without strength or power. And it has served as a measure of worth in strange, limited and destructive ways. It has a less sweet origin from the Old English – ‘cunning, crafty, clever’. As words evolve, it morphed to a much softer sentiment. My Pretty is a raucous celebration – embracing the grit of fiddling, the relentlessness of work rhythms, and inspired by the distortion and reverberation of rock and roll.

^{Programme note © Julia Wolfe}

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If you’ve enjoyed the concert today, bring friends and family and come along to this forthcoming concert. As an existing audience member, you can buy tickets for it for £7 using promotion code NOWYOU when buying online.

Icons and Reimaginings

Thursday 27/11/25, 7.30pm
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir OceansUK premiere
Barber Violin Concerto 
Respighi Rossiniana
Rossini William Tell – overture

Nil Venditti conductor
Stella Chen violin

 COLOURFUL | IMPRESSIONISTIC | PUNCHY

Nil Venditti returns to BBC Hoddinott Hall this November with a programme featuring Respighi and Rossini, this time alongside the iconic Violin Concerto by Barber and the UK premiere of María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir'sOceans.

Barber’s Violin Concerto was written in the 1930s, a time when atonality was vying for attention with more traditional styles, and his richness of melody went down very well. Expansive and at times moody themes are balanced by heady virtuosity. To perform the solo role tonight we’re thrilled to welcome Stella Chen. In Rossiniana, Respighi turns to Rossini's music as his muse. Respighi takes four piano pieces from Rossini’s Sins of Old Age and colourfully reworks them into an orchestral suite of vibrant and expressive depths – the perfect pairing for a work which needs little introduction – Rossini’s overture to William Tell.

Book tickets for just £7 using promotion code NOWYOU https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/evr6gw

Biographies

Stephanie Childressconductor

Strong ideas, lucid communication and focused energy are among the qualities that define Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress.

Her 2024/25 season concluded with debuts with the San Francisco, Houston and San Diego Symphony orchestras, alongside a return to the Cleveland Orchestra. This season began with her debut at New York’s Juilliard School conducting Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony and leading the New York premiere of Anna Clyne’s Palette. She continues her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia with programmes featuring Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2. The last of these marks the beginning of an exploration of Schumann’s symphonic works performed throughout the season with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and Minnesota Orchestra. She also makes debuts with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Next June she will work with director Tom Morris on a reimagining of Mahler’s First Symphony at St John’s Smith’s Square.

During the past few seasons she has conducted Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Hamburg Staatsoper and Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro for Glyndebourne’s autumn season. She is also an advocate for contemporary opera and has conducted Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves with Detroit Opera and Simon Voseček’s Ogres at Prague State Opera. This season she conducts La traviata at the Finnish National Opera.

She enjoys strong ties to the French cultural scene following her second-prize win at La Maestra conducting competition in 2020. Since then, she has conducted the Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Île de France and Orchestre National de Montpellier and makes her debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine this season.

Stephanie Childress has a keen interest in youth music programmes and enjoys a close connection to the Sun Valley Music Festival Institute, where she was previously Associate Conductor. During her own training, she served as Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève from 2021 to 2023 and was one of the first conductors to join l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.

Geneva Lewisviolin

American/New Zealand violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of outstanding artistry and heartfelt performances.

She was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2022–24) and is also the recipient of a 2022 Borletti–Buitoni Trust Award and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, among other awards.

In 2023 she made her BBC Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jaime Martín. Additional collaborations have included with the BBC and BBC Scottish Symphony orchestras, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais and the Atlanta, Indianapolis and Vancouver Symphony orchestras.

This season includes performances with Kremerata Baltica, Baltimore, San Diego, Santa Rosa and Utah Symphony orchestras, City of Granada Orchestra and the Czěstochowska and Jalisco Philharmonic orchestras.

Chamber music forms an important strand of her activities and she has worked with leading musicians including Jonathan Biss, Glenn Dicterow, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer and Dame Mitsuko Uchida. She has performed at venues and festivals such as Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Marlboro Music Festival, Kronberg Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Ravinia and Chamberfest Cleveland.

She was awarded an Ensemble Fellowship by the New England Conservatory’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program, through which her string quartet created interactive educational programmes for audiences throughout Boston. The quartet was also chosen for the Virginia Arts Festival Residency, during which they performed and presented masterclasses in elementary, middle and high schools.

She received her Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Miriam Fried, before going on to study with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy.

Geneva Lewis currently performs on a composite violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, c.1776, generously on loan from a charitable trust.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

For over 90 years, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the only professional symphony orchestra in Wales, has played an integral part in the cultural landscape of the country, occupying a distinctive role as both a broadcast and national orchestra, and serving as an ambassador of Welsh culture, regularly performing music created in Wales and championing Welsh composers and artists.

Part of BBC Cymru Wales and supported by the Arts Council of Wales, BBC NOW performs a busy schedule of concerts and broadcasts, working with acclaimed conductors and soloists from across the world, including its Principal Conductor, the award-winning Ryan Bancroft.

The orchestra is committed to working in partnership with community groups and charities, taking music out of the concert hall and into settings such as schools and hospitals to enable others to experience and be empowered by music. It undertakes workshops, concerts and side-by-side performances to inspire and encourage the next generation of performers, composers and arts leaders, and welcomes thousands of young people and community members annually through its outreach and education projects.

BBC NOW performs annually at the BBC Proms and biennially at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and its concerts can be heard regularly across the BBC – on Radio 3, Radio Wales and Radio Cymru. On screen, music performed by BBC NOW can be heard widely across the BBC and other global channels, including the soundtrack and theme tune for Doctor Who, Planet Earth III, Prehistoric Planet, The Pact and Children in Need.

Based at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay, BBC NOW utilises a state-of-the-art recording studio with a camera system for livestreams and TV broadcasts to bring BBC NOW’s music to a broader audience across Wales and the world. For more information about BBC NOW please visit bbc.co.uk/now

Patron
HM King Charles III ^{KG KT PC GCB}
Principal Conductor
Ryan Bancroft
PrincipalGuest Conductor
Jaime Martín
Composer-in-Association
Gavin Higgins

First Violins
Lucy Gould ‡  
Martin Gwilym-Jones sub-leader
Gwenllian Hâf MacDonald
Terry Porteus
Suzanne Casey
Žanete Uškāne
Ruth Heney **
Kerry Gordon-Smith
Carmel Barber
Alejandro Trigo
Anna Cleworth
Zhivko Georgiev
Gary George Veale
Grace Shepherd

Second Violins
Anna Smith *
Kirsty Lovie #
Ros Butler
Sheila Smith
Katherine Miller
Beverley Wescott
Michael Topping
Roussanka Karatchivieva
Joseph Williams
Lydia Caines **
Vickie Ringguth
Laurence Kempton

Violas
Rebecca Jones *
Tetsuumi Nagata
Peter Taylor
Lydia Abell
Catherine Palmer
Lowri Taffinder
Anna Growns
Robert Gibbons
Laura Sinnerton
Dáire Roberts

Cellos
Pedro Silva 
Raphael Lang
Sandy Bartai
Keith Hewitt
Alistair Howes
Carolyn Hewitt
Rachel Ford
Kathryn Graham

Double Basses
David Stark *
Phoebe Clarke
Emma Prince
Christopher Wescott
Thea Sayer
Nathan Perry

Flutes
Matthew Featherstone *
John Hall †
Lindsey Ellis

Piccolo
Lindsey Ellis †

Oboes
Steve Hudson *
Luiz De Campos 

Cor anglais
Luiz De Campos 

Clarinets
William White
Rae Todd
Lenny Sayers +

Bass Clarinet
Lenny Sayers †+

Bassoons
Tammy Thorn
David Buckland

Contrabassoon
David Buckland †

Horns
John Davy
Meilyr Hughes
Tom Taffinder
Flora Bain
Dave Ransom

Trumpets
Corey Morris †
Robert Samuel
Rob Johnston

Trombones
Donal Bannister*
Dafydd Thomas †

Bass Trombone
Darren Smith †

Tuba
Richard Evans

Timpani
Chris Thomas

Percussion
Phil Girling
Phil Hughes
Rhydian Griffiths

Harp
Deian Rowlands

Piano
Catherine Roe Williams

* Section Principal
† Principal
‡ Guest Principal
# Assistant String Principal

The list of players was correct at the time of publication

Director Lisa Tregale
Orchestra Manager Liz Williams
Assistant Orchestra Manager Nick Olsen **
Orchestra Personnel ManagerKevin Myers
Orchestra and Operations CoordinatorEleanor Hall
Business Coordinator Georgia Dandy **
Head of Artistic Planning and ProductionGeorge Lee
Artists and Projects Manager Victoria Massocchi **
Orchestra Librarian Naomi Roberts **
Producer Mike Sims
Broadcast Assistant Emily Preston
Head of Marketing and Audiences Sassy Hicks
Marketing Coordinator Angharad Muir–Davies (maternity cover)
Digital Producer Angus Race
Social Media Coordinator Harriet Baugh
Marketing Apprentice Mya Clayden
Education Producer Beatrice Carey
Education Producer/Chorus Manager Rhonwen Jones
SeniorAudio Supervisors Simon Smith, Andrew Smillie
Production Business Manager Lisa Blofeld
Stage and Technical Manager Josh Mead +
Assistant Stage and Technical Manager Richie Basham

+ Green Team member
** Diversity & Inclusion Forum