St. David's Hall 7.30 pm Friday 22nd March 2019

A Night at the Proms

Michael Bell MBE - Conductor

Experience the thrill of A Night at the Proms with music by some of Britain’s best-loved 

composers. Gareth Wood’s Cardiff Bay Overture portrays the vitality and history of the 

waterfront area of the capital. This is followed by two pieces by Eric Coates that became 

famous as the theme tunes of radio’s Music While You Work and Desert Island Discs.

Vaughan Williams wrote his stunningly beautiful Serenade to Music in 1938 for Sir Henry 

Wood’s 50th anniversary concert – it was much loved by Sergei Rachmaninov!

Sir Malcolm Arnold’s dramatic Peterloo Overture was commissioned by the TUC and 

commemorates an event 200 years ago in Manchester when a peaceful gathering about 

political reform – attended by 80,000 people – was broken up forcibly and violently by the 

authorities. The moving and triumphant conclusion of Sir Malcolm’s Overture says that 

those who died did not do so in vain. 

Grace Williams’ ever delightful Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes leads to a suite from 

Laurence Olivier’s film version of Shakespeare’s Henry V with stirring music by Sir

William Walton. Evergreen Proms favourites by Sir Henry Wood and Sir Edward Elgar 

complete the programme.