‘Grace’

Cecilia Damström
ICE UK premiere 10’

Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade
Piano Concerto world premiere c20’

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

Grace Williams 
Symphony No. 1 40’

Emilia Hovingconductor
Clare Hammond piano

BBC NOW is proud to support sustainability, and we’re delighted to present a work in tonight’s concert which addresses global warming, the natural world and humankind’s relationship to it at its core - Cecilia Damström’s ICE.

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 recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast in Classical Live and the New Music Show; it will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds, where you can also find podcasts and music mixes.

ICE was written for Sinfonia Lahti to a commission marking the city of Lahti being named Green Capital of Europe in 2021. The piece is inspired by melting ice and in it we can hear how landscapes and winter become ever shorter. Through this work I try to express how global warming, as well as the collapse of ecosystems and the ever-faster tempo of the world, are killing the beautiful snow and ice structures that are millions of years old. It also expresses how the heart of the earth is fighting for its existence through each beat. In ICE I have also tried to describe what happens if we do take action: you can hear a rewind, how action has impact and can make us go back to winters. The name ICE stands both for ice itself and for ‘In Case of Emergency’.

^{Programme note © Cecilia Damström}

ICE won the Teosto Prize in 2022, one of the largest arts awards in the Nordic countries: with it, Damström became the first female composer in classical contemporary music to receive the award.

1 Larghetto
2 Scherzo

Clare Hammond piano

My composition grew out of a fascination with forms and conventions of 19th-century concerto repertoire, although it departs from these in one obvious respect, being divided into two contrasting movements rather than the traditional three.

The Larghetto first movement embraces a late 19th-century orchestral sound world while gently warping tonal elements with chromatic inflections. The soloist is positioned as a figure adrift upon these subtle sea changes. Brass sonorities have a prominent role in this movement, lending both a warmth and assertiveness to the material.

The Larghetto gives way to the lively edginess of the Scherzo. In this second movement I employ eccentric motifs, percussive attacks and hammering grooves, variously making the music walk, strut, dance and scurry. I was particularly attracted to the idea of musical gait and have attempted to capture the mannerisms of a military marching step. The Scherzo operates within the traditional marching tempo of 90 beats per minute with very little variation throughout. On top of this metronomic corseting, however, beat patterns are dressed in unusual ways.

The concerto was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society, with support from the John Ellerman Foundation.

^{Programme note © Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade}

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

1 Allegro con fuoco
2 Andante liricamente
3 Scherzo barbaro e segreto (Allegro molto)
4 Epilogue: Andante solenne

Grace Williams’s Symphony No. 1 – subtitled ‘Symphonic Impressions’ – broke new ground for Welsh music. Relatively few symphonies had been composed by Welsh composers before BBC Wales’s establishment of a professional orchestra in the 1930s, and Williams was the first of her generation to fulfil national expectations when she completed her new symphony in 1943. The war delayed the premiere, but it received its first broadcast performance in Cardiff (alongside the premiere of Williams’s newly composed Violin Concerto) by the BBC Welsh Orchestra, conducted by Mansel Thomas, on 30 March 1950.

Although Williams remained dissatisfied with the work as a whole, subsequent performances have confirmed the originality and pioneering nature of this true symphony for Wales. Bold features include its Welsh subject and novel formal approach. Williams drew inspiration from accounts of the Welsh hero Owain Glyndŵr (c.1354–1415) when composing the work and took the unusual step of casting her symphony ‘in the form of Symphonic Impressions of the Glendower scene in [Shakespeare’s] Henry IV, Part 1’. She shaped its first three movements into contrasting musical ‘impressions’ of Shakespeare’s Glendower, while the processional-type finale was her own ‘impression of Owain Glyndŵr, great figure of Welsh history’.

The opening movement depicts ‘Glendower the warrior’, and is prefaced in Williams’s manuscript score with Glendower’s description of his birth in Shakespeare’s play (Act 3 scene 1):

At my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and at my birth
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward …

This is a movement of dramatic fanfares and tempestuous orchestral fireworks – all ‘fire and brimstone & pageantry’ in the composer’s own words – notwithstanding the moments of calm that come in the more reflective central section and at the movement’s end.

The slow movement portrays ‘Glendower the dreamer’, the magical and sensuous beauty of Williams’s music evoking his translation of his Welsh-speaking daughter’s soothing request to her husband, Sir Edmund Mortimer:

She bids you upon the wanton rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,
Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,
Making such difference ’twixt wake and sleep …

The fast-paced Scherzo depicts ‘Glendower the magician’ – in particular, his boast that he is able ‘to command the devil’ (Act 3 scene 1). Marked barbaro e segreto (savagely and secretively), this wizardly movement crackles with demonic wit, intoxicating rhythmic energy and mercurial, quick-fire exchanges in the orchestra. The magnificent Epilogue finale is, by turns, heroic, passionate and elegiac in tone, the music here perhaps invoking a majestic national procession that we are all invited to join.

^{Programme note © Rhiannon Mathias}

You may also like:

Boulez at 100

Livestream

Thursday 6/3/25, 7.30pm
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Boulez Livres pour cordes
Berg Violin Concerto
Boulez Mémoriale
Messiaen Les offrandes oubliées
Wagner Tristan und Isolde – Prelude und Liebestod


Daniel Cohen conductor
Ava Bahari violin
Matthew Featherstone flute

CONTEMPORARY | INFLUENTIAL | ENLIGHTENING

In celebration of the 100th birthday of Pierre Boulez, conductor Daniel Cohen joins BBC NOW for an evening of mainly 20th-century gems, kicking off with Boulez’s own Livres pour cordes. An unexpected beauty runs deep in this angular and fragmentary work, which is nothing but lyrical throughout.

Ava Bahari makes her debut with BBC NOW in Berg’s best-known and most performed work, his powerful Violin Concerto, before BBC NOW’s Principal Flute, Matthew Featherstone, steps into the spotlight for Boulez’s Mémoriale, a dynamic masterpiece of extended flute technique. Boulez’s former teacher Olivier Messiaen is up next as we explore his reverential Les offrandes oubliées and finally we delve into the turbulence of forbidden love in Wagner’s groundbreaking music drama, Tristan und Isolde.

Fireworks of Passion

Thursday 20/3/25, 7.30pm
BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Friday 21/3/25, 7.30pm
Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Grace Williams Penillion
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov Symphony No. 3

Tadaaki Otaka conductor
Eldbjørg Hemsing violin

FIERY | IMPASSIONED | RICH

Quasi-improvisatory melodies weave with rhythmic drive, reminiscent of harp-accompanied folk songs, in Grace Williams’s Penillion, forming the potent opener to a concert with BBC NOW’s much-loved Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka.

Soaring melody and fiendishly tricky virtuosity combine in Bruch’s passionate First Violin Concerto. From soloistic fireworks to rich orchestral backdrop there’s little wonder this concerto remains a favourite with soloists and audiences alike; to perform we’re delighted to welcome back violin sensation Eldbjørg Hemsing. Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony is similarly passionate, striking climaxes giving way to soulful solos, forceful marches to thunderous celebration, all based on one musical motif skilfully transformed and developed throughout.

Biographies

Emilia Hovingconductor

Already firmly established across Europe, this season Emilia Hoving returns to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Helsinki and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Adelaide and Malmö Symphony orchestras. She makes debuts with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgian and Royal Scottish National orchestras, the Castile and León, Stavanger, Tasmanian and Trondheim Symphony orchestras and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw).

Highlights of the past few months include her subscription debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and first visits to the BBC, Swedish Radio and Tenerife Symphony orchestras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna’s Tonkünstler Orchestra.

She made her Japanese debut in 2022 at Suntory Hall with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and her Australian debut at the 2023 Adelaide Festival. In the same year she appeared at the Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival, and she regularly conducts works by living composers. Last October she conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the prestigious Nordic Music Days festival in Glasgow, and she is closely involved with the Helsinki Philharmonic’s ongoing project to revive works by neglected Finnish composers from the last century. 

This season she also makes her mainstage opera debut, conducting several performances of The Magic Flute for Opera North.

She was Assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2019) and Mikko Franck at Radio France (2020–22). Both posts both led to important jump-ins which catapulted her into the limelight. 

Emilia Hoving studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila, having begun conducting studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula. She previously studied piano and clarinet.

Clare Hammondpiano

Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances and won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2016. Recent and current highlights include debuts at the BBC Proms, Konzerthaus Berlin and Salle Bourgie in Montréal, alongside return visits to Wigmore Hall, London’s National Gallery and the Husum Festival and concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Ulster Orchestra. She has also given the world premiere of a newly discovered Fantasia by Andrzej Panufnik with the Filharmonia Poznańska and Łukasz Borowicz.

Recent highlights have also included Rachmaninov’s ‘Paganini’ Variations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Lionel Bringuier, Grace Williams’s Sinfonia concertante with BBC NOW and Jac van Steen, works by Piers Hellawell and Samy Moussa with the Ulster Orchestra and Jamie Phillips, and recitals at the Aldeburgh Festival, Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice and Festival Baroque de Pontoise.

Contemporary music is at the core of her work. She has given over 50 world premieres, including those of major works by Arlene Sierra, Robert Saxton and Michael Berkeley, and her discography includes world-premiere recordings of over 20 works. In 2019 she gave the world premiere of Kenneth Hesketh’s Uncoiling the River with Martyn Brabbins and BBC NOW, and a further performance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko. In 2022 she premiered Graham Fitkin’s new piano quartet with the composer, Ruth Wall and Kathryn Stott at the Aldeburgh Festival, opening the Southbank Centre’s 2022/23 season at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the same work.

The most recent addition to her discography is an album of Études by French composer Hélène de Montgeroult.

Community engagement forms an increasingly important part of Clare Hammond’s work. Since 2017 she has performed to some 16,000 schoolchildren in partnership with Gloucestershire Music and Wye Valley Music in Schools.

She completed a BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, and undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

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
Conductor Laureate
Tadaaki Otaka ^CBE
Composer-in-Association
Gavin Higgins

First Violins
Lesley Hatfield leader
Nick Whiting + associate leader
Martin Gwilym-Jones sub-leader
Gwenllian Hâf MacDonald
Suzanne Casey
Anna Cleworth
Žanete Uškāne
Carmel Barber
Ruth Heney **
Emilie Godden
Juan Gonzalez
Alejandro Trigo
Amy Fletcher
Rebecca Totterdell

Second Violins
Anna Smith *
Kitty Cheung
Katherine Miller
Beverley Wescott
Ilze Abola
Michael Topping
Lydia Caines **
Joseph Williams
Roussanka Karatchivieva
Laurence Kempton
Gary George-Veale
Elizabeth Whittam

Violas
Alex Thorndike #
Peter Taylor
Laura Sinnerton
Catherine Palmer
Anna Growns
Lydia Abell
Robert Gibbons
Lowri Taffinder
Dáire Roberts
Charlotte Limb

Cellos
Hee Yeon Cho
Jessica Feaver
Rachel Ford
Carolyn Hewitt
Alistair Howes
Keith Hewitt
Kathryn Graham
Katy Cox

Double Basses
Christopher Wescott
Yat Hei Lee
Antonia Bakewell
Richard Gibbons
Thea Sayer
Albert Dennis

Flutes
Matthew Featherstone *
John Hall †
Lindsey Ellis **

Piccolo
Lindsey Ellis †**

Oboes
Steve Hudson *
Izabelle Cheesman
Amy McKean †

Cor Anglais
Amy McKean †

Clarinets
Nicholas Carpenter *
Bethany Crouch
Lenny Sayers +**

Bass Clarinet
Lenny Sayers †+**

Bassoons
Hugo Mak
Jo Shewan
David Buckland

Contrabassoon
David Buckland † 

Horns
Tim Thorpe *
John Davy
Neil Shewan †
Dave Ransom
Ed Griffiths

Trumpets
Philippe Schartz *
Will Morley
Corey Morris †

Trombones
Donal Bannister *
Dafydd Thomas †

Bass Trombone
Darren Smith †

Tuba
Daniel Trodden †**

Timpani
Dominic Hackett

Percussion
Phil Hughes
Phil Girling

Harp
Elen Hydref Wright

* 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
Business Coordinator Georgia Dandy **
Orchestra Administrator Eleanor Hall +**
Head of Artistic Planning and ProductionMatthew Wood
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 Amy Campbell-Nichols +
Digital Producer vacancy
Social Media Coordinator Harriet Baugh
Education Producers Beatrice Carey, Rachel Naylor maternity cover
Audio Supervisors Simon Smith, Andrew Smillie
Production Business Manager Lisa Blofeld
Stage and Technical Manager vacancy
Assistant Stage and Technical Manager Josh Mead +

+ Green Team member
** Diversity & Inclusion Forum