The ever-popular Martyn Brabbins returns to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ NOW this May as we travel to St Davids for the annual Cathedral Festival.
Written for the 1898 Three Choirs Festival, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade brims with inventiveness and explosive energy. Ivan Karizna debuts with ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ NOW in Huw Watkins’ Cello Concerto – wonderful expressivity and deeply lyrical tunes encapsulate a mercurial scherzo in this work written for his brother and ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ NOW during his years as the Orchestra’s Composer-in-Association – and we explore Beethoven as he transitions from the Classical to Romantic eras in his ‘Eroica’ Symphony. From its thundering opening chords to its epic scale and emotional impact, Beethoven’s Third Symphony was grander and more dramatic than audiences were accustomed to at the time of its premiere, but this masterstroke, inspired by the heroic Napoleon Bonaparte, remains one of his most celebrated works, full of energy and drama.