BBC 100 - Celebrating Our Orchestras & Choirs

Sunday 13th February 2022
Time: 11:00 to 12:00 (1 hour long)

Ulster Orchestra.

John Toal introduces a live concert from the Ulster Hall featuring the Ulster Orchestra under conductor Andrew Gourlay performing works by two local composers. The first is by Hamiliton Harty, the Hillsborough man who went on to become chief conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. He wrote his Piano Concerto in 1922 - the same year as the BBC was founded - and the soloist in this performance is Belfast pianist Michael McHale. The programme also features Democracy Dances by Belfast composer Conor Mitchell. This orchestral work, with its story of the search and struggle for democracy, was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in November last year. It was premiered in March 2021 by the Ulster Orchestra with live electronics, but has been specially reworked for this broadcast. Hamilton Harty: Piano Concerto in B minor; Conor Mitchell: Democracy Dances. Michael McHale (piano), Ulster Orchestra, Andrew Gourlay (conductor).
(Live)

Sunday 13th February 2022 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 16:00 to 18:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

BBC Singers.

Natasha Riordan presents a live concert by the BBC Singers from the Guildhall School's Milton Court concert hall as part of a weekend of music celebrating the BBC centenary in October 2022, featuring pieces by Vaughan Williams, Judith Weir, Melissa Dunphy, Roxanna Panufnik, Philip Herbert, Errollyn Wallen and Bax. Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor, premiered 100 years ago in 1922, was a game-changer for English choral music - a piece whose pastoral harmonies may sound like the stuff of English soil and summertime, but whose distinctive atmosphere reconnected the country's music with a tradition that had lain dormant for four centuries. Here, the Mass's movements are interspersed with contemporary works that harbour the same sense of peace and spirituality. After the interval, Howard Goodall conducts the European premiere of his own Unconditional Love. Written in lockdown, the cantata was conceived as `a work of gratitude, of memorial and of hope for a world rebuilt" after the pain of the pandemic. This radiant piece from one of the UK's most communicative composers sets poetry written in times of hardship, much of it in 2020 and some by Goodall himself. Vaughan Williams: Mass in G minor (except Credo); Judith Weir: Love Bade Me Welcome; Melissa Dunphy: Mourning into Dancing; Roxanna Panufnik: Child of Heaven; Philip Herbert: Agnus Dei; Errollyn Wallen: Pace; Bax: This Worldes Joie. Interval. Walford Davies: God Be in My Head; Howard Goodall. Unconditional Love: A Cantata of Gratitude and Remembrance (European premiere). Francesca Massey (organ), Richard Pearce (piano), Bella Tromba Brass Ensemble - Jo Harris, Becca Toft (trumpet), Anneke Scott, Jo Withers (horn), Emma Bassett, Becky Smith (trombone), Hanna Mbuya (tuba), BBC Singers, Howard Goodall (conductor).
(Live)

Sunday 13th February 2022 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:30 to 21:30 (2 hours long)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Jamie MacDougall presents a live concert from City Halls, Glasgow, with Ryan Wigglesworth conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, soprano Katherine Broderick and viola player Scott Dickinson in Weill, Strauss, Ryan Wigglesworth and Berg. Weill: Quodlibet; Strauss: 3 Hymnen, Op 71 - No 1 Hymne an die liebe 8.10 Interval. 8.30 Ryan Wigglesworth: Five Waltzes for Viola and Orchestra; Berg: Three Fragments from Wozzeck. Katherine Broderick (soprano), Scott Dickinson (viola), Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
(Live)

No, was it noteworthy?