BBC National Orchestra of Wales

A concert which celebrates music’s power to tell stories. Anna Clyne’s Masquerade is an energetic, sharply coloured piece inspired by 18th century promenade music and the spectacle of masked celebration. Tumultuous opening gestures give way to lyrical string writing, capturing the excitement, elegance and theatrical flair of music entwined with dance and disguise. Sir Stephen Hough performs Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, one of the most demanding and thrilling works in the repertoire. Renowned for its extraordinary virtuosity, the concerto marries relentless technical brilliance with sweeping lyricism, standing as a pinnacle of the composer’s output. Janáček’s Taras Bulba plunges into a world of stark drama and tragedy. Drawing on a brutal sixteenth‑century tale of war and loss, Janáček fuses moments of romance and violence in his urgent, patchy orchestral style. The programme concludes with Strauss’ Don Juan, the work that launched his international reputation. A dazzling orchestral tone poem, it transforms the legendary seducer’s exploits into a sequence of vivid musical episodes.