麻豆社

The final concert of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival 2017 features the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's Recorder Concerto, performed by Sophie Westbrooke, alongside Huw Watkins's Cello Concerto. The concert is book-ended with John Adams's The Chairman Dances and his work for string quartet and orchestra, Absolute Jest.

Live from 麻豆社 Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

John Adams: The Chairman Dances
Huw Watkins: Cello Concerto

8.10 Interval Music

8.30
Graham Fitkin: Recorder Concerto
John Adams: Absolute Jest

Paul Watkins (cello)
Sophie Westbrooke (recorder)
Apollon Musag猫te (string quartet)
麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales
Tecwyn Evans (conductor)

John Adams wrote The Chairman Dances in lieu of writing the third scene of his opera Nixon in China, depicting a foxtrot for Chairman Mao and his bride Chiang Ch'ing, and it swings between sentimentality and bravura. Huw Watkins's deeply expressive cello concerto was written for his brother Paul and 麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales for last year's Proms, and it is paired with a new work from Graham Fitkin which combines an intriguing mix of orchestra with amplified recorder. To round off, John Adams's Absolute Jest, described by Musical America as "a gripping 25-minute sonic joy ride... You can hear the echoes of Beethoven throughout the piece - chopped, remixed, inside out and upside down ... and you can almost see the composer smiling at the results".