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News and Events
Monday, 31 July 2017

On the evening of 29th July David had the pleasure of premiering Paul Mealor’s Euphonium Concerto at the Welsh Proms in St David’s Hall, Cardiff, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The work is inspired by a Gaelic poem about lost love, telling the tale of a fisherman and his wife. She accompanies her love to the shores of the sea to wave him off; but tragically he never returns. Each day she returns to the sea and sings to him, but no answer ever comes. In the tradition of Celtic songs it is dark and full of passion and pain.

The performance was met with a standing ovation from the audience, and a great deal of critical acclaim. Western Mail critic Peter Collins considered the performance to be “the undoubted highlight” of the evening, writing:

“...it was played with great subtlety and skill… [with the work having] a mysterious, haunting quality, but also a lively sparkling edge that seemed to capture the essence of the Celtic soul. The evocative opening and closing sections had a lilting beauty which enchanted the capacity audience.”

Summarising the composition, Collins stated:

“This is a genuinely impressive new work which deserves to be heard in concert halls around this land and beyond.”

David reflected on the evening in saying:

"It's always a great honour to perform at the Last Night of the Welsh Proms — especially conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes and having the opportunity to perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Paul's writing is so evocative and engaging that you could feel the audience being pulled into the music from the very opening. He is a wonderful composer who we are lucky to have been able to attract to write for the brass band medium. I hope to be able to record the work in the future and give many more performances.”

Below is a video of excerpts from the performance. The complete work is c.16 minutes in duration in four continuous movements (Publisher: Novello)



For more information about the Welsh Proms, visit: www.welshproms.com 

Further details about the composer Paul Mealor can be found here: www.paulmealor.com

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