A concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto, featuring George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat and Gabriela Ortiz's TZAM.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales are at BBC Hoddinott Hall on Thursday 15 April 2027, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting. It's a programme that pulls from three different corners of the map, and it's part of the BBC NOW 2026-27 season.
The night opens with Tzam by Gabriela Ortiz. The title means 'dialogue' in Ayapaneco, an endangered language, and the piece is dedicated to the late composer Mario Lavista. It's a reflection on human connection, memory and shared space, and it runs for about twenty minutes. Following that is George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue — the Grofé orchestration — which famously grew out of a train journey and took the rhythms of the American city and turned them into a concert piece. That's where the piano comes in, with Ethan Loch on the keys. There's an interval after that.
Then comes the second half: Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat, the full ballet. It's a thirty-five-minute stretch of Spanish colour, folk rhythms and bright orchestration. The whole evening is built around dialogue, city energy and sun-drenched dance, and it brings in mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafé to join the orchestra. Between the three pieces, you've got Ortiz's meditation on connection, Gershwin's New York energy and de Falla's Spanish folk rhythms, so it's a fair bit of ground to cover in one sitting.
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It's at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, starting at 7:30pm on Thursday 15 April 2027.
