Afternoon on 3 - BBC National Orchestra of Wales on the Road - North Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales - around Wales and beyond Each season the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gives concerts throughout the principality, visiting festivals and promoting its own seasons of 'North Wales Tours' as well as appearing in the South, including its home at BBC Hoddinott Hall. In this week of Afternoon on 3 we visit some of the festivals and venues through Wales, with comments from the players, and in Friday's programme we venture further afield and discover the strong ties between Wales and Italy. Today - North Wales It's a five hour coach journey up to the North for the Cardiff-based players of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. It's a trip they make several times each year to fulfil their "national" role. We catch up with them in the company of Principal Guest conductor Jac van Steen on the border with England in Wrexham, Garry Walker raises the baton in the seaside holiday town of Llandudno, and from just a couple of months back, Rory MacDonald conducts Dvorak's ever-popular ninth symphony from the North Wales International Music Festival in St. Asaph, in the smallest ancient cathedral in Britain. The St. Asaph Festival was founded in 1972 by Welsh composer William Mathias (he's buried here, just beside the cathedral), but for nearly two decades, Mathias taught at the university in Bangor an hour further West along the road. The orchestra is still a regular visitor to the Prichard Jones Hall here, set high on a hill overlooking the Menai Straits and the Isle of Anglesey. This afternoon we go back in the BBC archives to a concert from February 1985 conducted by William Mathias to celebrate the centenary of the university. This is the world premiere of his Anniversary Dances, written for the occasion. Presented by Penny Gore. 2.20pm Weber: Der Freischutz Overture Jac van Steen, conductor 2.30pm Haydn: Symphony No. 70 in D major Garry Walker, conductor 2.45pm Mathias: Anniversary Dances conducted by the composer 3.10pm Dvorak: Symphony No.9 in E minor "From The New World" Rory MacDonald, conductor.