Anniversary year

29th September 2016

I’ll be singing this afternoon on In Tune (with Sir Willard White) to celebrate the birthday of Radio Three, seventy years ago. They’ve even promised me cake! It’s always delightful to sing on In Tune, partly because of the relaxed and fun atmosphere that Sean Rafferty always creates, and partly because it’s a lovely chance to sing some repertoire I’m fond of, for no real reason. Today it’ll be Purcell, Handel and Mozart, but looking back over my many visits to the show I’ve also sung Vivaldi, Bach, Schubert, Dowland and probably more that I can’t remember. I feel particularly attached to Radio Three (not least because of my Sunday evening show, Early Music Late - shameless plug) because it feels like the channel I’ve grown up with. At home and in my career. So: Happy Birthday Radio Three, and I hope I’m still sounding as good as you at seventy!
Thinking about it, this seems to be a year for anniversaries. Next week sees the commemorative performance of Karl Jenkins and Mererid Hopwood’s amazing Cantata Memoria Aberfan. There can’t be many people who don’t know the horrendous history of Aberfan, and the loss of 144 children and teachers when a colliery spoil tip slid on top of the primary school. The Cantata was commissioned by S4C and we’ll be performing it on Oct 8th at the Wales Millennium Centre - it’s a stellar cast with Bryn Terfel, Catrin Finch, Sinfonia Cymru and Karl himself conducting. We recorded it back in April and I have to say I didn’t manage it without tears: it is a deeply moving piece. I hope it’s seen as a fitting and beautiful tribute to those lost little lives.
Another anniversary on the horizon is that of Morfydd Llwyn Owen, the extraordinary composer who burned so brightly at the start of the last century, but died under tragic and unexplained circumstances ages just 26. I recently recorded a CD of her works, many of them unknown, and that’ll be released in November in conjunction with Tŷ Cerdd. I’ll also be giving concerts of her work, alongside readings of her letters and those of her husband, the renowned psychoanalyst Ernest Jones. Do come to Harlech, Swansea, Cardiff or London!
Not an anniversary as such, but I’ll also be bringing some Bach to your screens next year. If I’ve seemed a little quiet of late, it’s because my non-singing, non-presenting time has been taken up with a new job: translating! Last year I took it upon myself, with support from S4C, to translate the John Passion into Welsh. It is, as far as we know, the first time the piece will have been sung in Welsh in its entirety, and we’ll be recording and filming it soon for broadcast next Easter. It’s one of the things I’ve been most proud of, I must say, and I sincerely hope that it reaches a wide audience, and makes a bit more sense of Bach when it’s sung in the mother tongue of so many of us.
In other news, I’ve started a singing club at my little boy’s school (most exhausting and rewarding thing EVER!), sung at the Proms with the Sixteen, given a world premiere in Trondheim, another (with ballet dancers!) at the Eisteddfod, oh and I’ve sung for the Prince of Wales. He left after my Mozart but hey it was downhill from there eh..?!
Back soon. Off to sing with Sir Willard White

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Anniversary year