Christmas Celebrations

Nigel Hess A Christmas Overture

Prokofiev Lieutenant Kijé Suite: Troika

Shane, Arr. Dunk Do You Hear What I Hear?
^{Caroline Sheen}

Loesser, Arr. Dunk What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
^{Caroline Sheen}

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy; Dance of the Mirlitons; Trepak

Schubert, Arr. P. Hope Ave Maria
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}

Adam, Arr. P. Hope O Holy Night
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}

Adam Saunders Fairytale Sleighride

INTERVAL: 20 MINUTES

Coleridge-Taylor Christmas Overture

Rimsky-Korsakov The Snow Maiden: Dance Of The Tumblers

Ryan Davies, Arr. Howard Nadolig? Pwy a ŵyr!
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}

Kent, Arr. Howard I’ll Be Home for Christmas
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}

Alan Silvestri, Arr. Brubaker The Polar Express: Concert Suite

Tormé, Arr. Dunk The Christmas Song
^{Caroline Sheen}

Stanley/Taylor/Brooks, Arr. Dunk The Man with the Bag
^{Caroline Sheen}

Leroy Anderson Sleigh Ride

arr. Gareth Glyn Christmas Sing-a-long

Elin Llwyd Presenter   
Caroline Sheen Singer   
Trystan Llŷr Griffiths Tenor

Grant Llewellyn conductor

A Christmas Overture Nigel Hess 
A Christmas Overture reminds us what Christmas is all about. A sequence of traditional carols weave their way through the orchestra – how many can you pick out?

Lieutenant Kijé Suite: Troika Prokofiev
In 1934 Prokofiev wrote music to accompany a film about an imaginary army officer, Lieutenant Kijé, who was invented by his fellow officers to get them out of trouble. The Troika accompanies a journey over the snowy Russian countryside in a three-horse sleigh, the bells on their harnesses jingling merrily.

Do You Hear What I Hear? Shane, arr. Dunk       
^{Caroline Sheen}
He isn’t mentioned by name but Do you hear what I hear?, composed by Gloria Shayne, with lyrics by Noël Regney, tells a slightly mangled version of the story of the nativity of Jesus. It starts out gently – although as it continues, the drum tattoos grow gradually more prominent, the feeling of a march more insistent. That’s perhaps because it was conceived in October 1962 against the background of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world came as close as it ever has to the brink of nuclear war. The first recording, by the Harry Simeone Chorale, sold a quarter of a million copies that Christmas, and the following year Bing Crosby made the song inimitably his own.

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? Loesser, arr. Dunk
^{Caroline Sheen}
Frank Loesser is best known as the composer of shows such as Guys and Dolls but in 1947 he composed What are you doing New Year’s Eve? as a stand-alone song. Of course, it’s usually performed at Christmas but Loesser’s daughter recalled how it always annoyed him to hear it sung over the holidays. ‘The singer, madly in love, is making a (possibly rash) commitment far into the future,’ she explained. Nevertheless, it was a Christmas hit for The Orioles in 1949, since which time its gentle optimism has endeared it to singers from Ella Fitzgerald to Donny Osmond, Rod Stewart and Azealia Banks.

The Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Sugar-plum Fairy; Dance of the Mirlitons; Trepak Tchaikovsky     
Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is a magical account of Christmas Eve in which presents are handed out at a grand party. A young girl, Clara, is given a wooden nutcracker doll by her mysterious uncle. That night the nutcracker comes to life, transforms himself into a prince, and takes Clara on a dream journey through a wintry wonderland to the Kingdom of Sweets, where she is entertained by a succession of colourful dances. The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy gets its tinkly delicacy from an instrument called the celesta; the Dance of the Mirlitons is a charmer, featuring a pair of flutes; and last, the Trepak is a lively Russian Cossack dance.

Ave Maria Schubert, arr. P. Hope
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}  
Schubert’s song Ave Maria was originally a setting of words from Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake. Its yearning melody and the constantly shifting harmonies of the harp-like accompaniment have ensured its position as one of his most popular songs – even if it’s often sung as a ‘hymn’ with Latin words rather than the original secular lyrics.

O Holy Night Adam, arr. P. Hope
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}  
Adolphe Adam remains best known for his ballet Giselle and for O Holy Night, a Christmas hymn to words by a wine merchant and amateur poet, Placide Cappeau. With its rippling accompaniment and effortlessly unfolding melody, it’s easy to understand why it became so popular. It was also the first carol to be heard on radio – when, on Christmas Eve 1906, a Canadian inventor named Reginald Fessenden broadcast it from Massachusetts to ships at sea. 

Fairytale Sleighride Adam Saunders                      
In Fairytale Sleighride by modern-day composer Adam Saunders, it’s easy to imagine the horses trotting along and the sleigh-bells ringing. It almost sounds like a Disney film soundtrack – you can imagine it accompanying the scene in Beauty and the Beast where the two characters play in the snow – and that’s not surprising because Adam writes music for lots of films and
TV shows. As for how he makes it sound fairy-tale-ish, it’s partly down to him often keeping the instruments playing high: listen to the chirpy woodwind and the bouncy high strings. Then, can you hear the chiming instrument? That’s the instrument onstage that looks like an upright piano but is actually a celesta, which we’ve just heard in The Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. 

INTERVAL: 20 MINUTES

Christmas Overture Coleridge-Taylor                     
Despite growing up very poor, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – the son of a West African father and an English mother – managed to achieve remarkable musical success. When he was still a student, no less a figure than Edward Elgar described him as ‘far and away the cleverest fellow among the younger men’. One of his most famous pieces is The Song of Hiawatha, but he also wrote music for several plays, including The Forest of Wild Thyme, ‘A Tale for Children under Ninety’ in verse by Alfred Noyes. Among the music is this irresistible Christmas Overture, arranged by the bandleader and light-music composer Sydney Baynes. Four Christmas bells announce its parade of melody and the tunes in question need no introduction!

The Snow Maiden: Dance of the Tumblers Rimsky-Korsakov      
Winter has long exerted a fascination upon Russian composers – not surprising, given that so much of the country is so cold! Russia’s colourful folklore has also provided plenty of inspiration – and the two subjects come together in works such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Snow Maiden. The maiden of the title is the child of nature, the daughter of Spring and Frost. In the Dance of the Tumblers the Tsar is entertained as he presides over a contest in which men compete to become the Snow Maiden’s husband.

Nadolig? Pwy a ŵyr? Ryan Davies, arr. Howard
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}                          
Is this Christmas? Who knows? Ryan Davies became one of Wales’s best-loved comedians as one half of Ryan and Ronnie, a double act with Ronnie Williams that achieved unparalleled fame in the country. During a short career – he died in 1977, aged only 40 – he was also active as a singer, songwriter and pianist, and among his most popular songs is the touching Nadolig? Pwy a ŵyr!, which soon became indispensable for a Welsh Christmas.

I’ll be home for Christmas Kent, arr. Howard
^{Trystan Llŷr Griffiths}
I’ll be Home for Christmas, with music by Walter Kent and lyrics by Kim Gannon, is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed away from home during the Second World War. It’s another song made famous by Bing Crosby: he recorded it in 1943 and it soon became so popular that in America it was said that Crosby did more for military morale than anyone else of that era. Yet the song was banned from broadcast in the UK by the BBC, who took the opposing view – perhaps hard to credit now – that it might be damaging for the morale of British troops!

The Polar Express: Concert suite Alan Silvestri,arr. Brubaker
Robert Zemeckis’s haunting computer-animated 2004 film The Polar Express is set aboard a train full of children bound for the North Pole to visit Santa Claus as he prepares for Christmas. It’s something of a classic now but initial reviews were mixed, although the yearning title-song, Believe, sung by Josh Groban, was Oscar-nominated the following year. The orchestral portion of the soundtrack, by Alan Silvestri, links together the sequence of classic songs that provide so much of the film’s atmosphere and has become popular beyond its celluloid context gathered together in this sumptuous suite.

The Christmas song Tormé, arr. Dunk
^{Caroline Sheen}                        
Mel Tormé’s The Christmas Song was conceived by lyricist Robert Wells as a way to cool down during a sweltering summer. Wells had scribbled down ‘Chestnuts roasting … Jack Frost nipping … Yuletide carols … Folks dressed up like Eskimos’ – purely in an attempt to beat the heat! ‘He thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off,’ recalled Tormé. ‘Forty minutes later that song was written’ – and it became a hit for Nat King Cole in 1946, shortly before, inevitably, Bing Crosby got hold of it and made it his own.

The Man With the Bag Stanley/Taylor/Brooks, arr. Dunk
^{Caroline Sheen}     
This pair of songs goes upbeat to close with Kay Starr’s 1950 hit (Everybody’s Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag – composed by Starr’s husband Hal Stanley with jazz pianist Dudley Brooks and composer and screenwriter Irving Taylor. The Man with the Bag enjoyed a second life half a century later, when it made a starring appearance in the American legal comedy series Ally McBeal – and again more recently when Jessie J sang it for a Christmas advertisement.

Sleigh Ride Leroy Anderson                          
You’re not going to believe this but the American composer Leroy Anderson had the idea for his 1946 song Sleigh Ride during … a summer heatwave in America! Although he actually finished writing it in February 1948. You’ll recognise in it the 1940s Swing Era’s trademark walking bass and swinging beat, and the fact it makes you want to dance; in fact, if you were on a dance floor with an American 1940s dance band, you’d probably be dancing a foxtrot. 

Christmas Sing-a-long arr. Gareth Glyn         
^* For downloadable text, click here     

We end tonight’s concert with an opportunity for you to join in and sing, in a whole medley of super-famous Christmas tunes arranged by Machynlleth-born Gareth Glyn. It begins with Jingle Bells, written in 1850 by James Lord Pierpont and inspired by the popular sleigh races in Medford, Massachusetts, in America. Next comes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on a story written in 1939 by Robert L. May, its music composed by his brother-in-law Johnny Marks. Then – prepare yourselves – White Christmas was dreamt up by the American singer songwriter Irving Berlin while … relaxing in the heat by a swimming pool! Next comes Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, a song by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie that became an instant hit when it was released in 1934. Then finally, after all those brilliant American tunes, we close with a British carol dating from the 16th century, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

^{Notes by David Threasher and Charlotte Gardner}

Help us Improve Our Online Programmes.
Please take this 5-minute survey and let us know what you think of these notes.
Programme Survey

Biographies

Grant Llewellyn conductor

Grant Llewellyn is Music Director of Orchestre National de Bretagne and Music Director Laureate of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. He was born in Tenby, South Wales, and won a Conducting Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, where he worked with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur and André Previn.

He has conducted many leading orchestras and enjoys a close relationship with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which he has led on tour to South America, including Patagonia.

He is also an accomplished opera conductor, with repertoire ranging from Handel to contemporary music.

He regularly leads education and outreach projects; in 2017 he led the first ever ‘Relaxed’ BBC Prom with BBC NOW, a concert specially designed for those with autism, sensory and communication impairments, and learning disabilities.

Elin Llwyd presenter

For 17 years Elin has worked as a professional actor, singer, voice-over artist and presenter on both stage and screen. Best known for her role in Pobol y Cwm and, perhaps more recently, for her work on S4C drama series’ Gwaith Cartref and 35Awr, Elin was also the voice of Dashy on the Welsh adaptation of the cartoon Octonauts.

Stage engagements include Cape Town Opera’s Tiger Bay, the Musical and vocal performances include Tosca with Sir Bryn Terfel at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the Abu Dhabi Festival. Elin’s presenting career started on Tag; a weekly, live magazine programme for young people, and since then she has presented various programmes for S4C including the Urdd Eisteddfod, Gŵyl Cerdd Dant, Band Cymru and Llangollen International Eisteddfod.

Elin is also co-founder of ABC – Academi Berfformio Caerdydd and ABC Y Fro, a performing arts academy for children and young people in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Caroline Sheen singer

Caroline Sheen was born and brought up in South Wales and graduated with first-class honours from Guildford School of Acting. 

Her West End credits include Violet in 9 to 5 at the Savoy Theatre, Sandy in Grease, Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Eponine and Fantine in Les Misérables, Jennifer Gabriel in the original cast of The Witches of Eastwick, Sophie in Mamma Mia!, Florinda in Into the Woods, Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Susan in Once in a Lifetime. In 2010 she was asked to tour America playing Mary Poppins, a role she first played on tour in the UK. 

Her television credits include Torchwood, Hotel Babylon, Doctors, Henry VIII, Press, The Rook and Pitching In.  Film work includes Nativity Rocks, Four Kids and It and Les Misérables. She has also released several albums. 

Since the pandemic she has performed the role of Guinevere in Camelot at the Watermill Theatre. 

Trystan Llŷr Griffiths tenor

Welsh tenor Trystan Llŷr Griffiths has worked with Opéra National de Lorraine, Zurich Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North and Welsh National Opera. He initially studied for a degree in Theatre, Music and Media at Trinity University College, Carmarthen, completing his training in 2015 at London’s National Opera Studio.

He has sung roles in Fidelio, Don Giovanni, Katya Kabanova, Alcina, Pagliacci, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute.

Concert highlights include Mozart’s Requiem at the Lacoste Festival, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music at the BBC Proms, a concert with Sir Bryn Terfel and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall and Messiah with the BBC National Chorus of Wales and the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. 

He released his debut album in 2015.