United Kingdom Grace Williams, Saint-Saëns, Elgar: Akiko Suwanai (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jaime Martín (conductor). Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, 18.4.2026. (LJ)
Grace Williams – Sea Sketches (1944)
Saint-Saëns – Violin Concerto No.3 in B minor, Op. 61 (1880)
Elgar – Enigma Variations (1898-99)
Before this concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), I had attended a lecture hosted by the Swansea Historical Association at the National Waterfront Museum. It was about the RNLI and the Mumbles Lifeboat. Stories of the perils at sea and the intrepid volunteers who make up the RNLI were, therefore, at the forefront of my mind as I walked along Swansea Bay and into the Brangwyn Hall for the BBC NOW’s afternoon concert. Fittingly, the orchestra began with Grace Williams’s Sea Sketches for string orchestra, which conveys the changeability of the sea, its wonders, and its perils.
Williams composed Sea Sketches in 1944 when she was living in London, having moved there to study at the Royal College of Music. The music, however, is less to do with London than with memories of growing up in Wales. Indeed, it is unsurprising, given both the years during which Williams lived in London and her strongly held pacifism, that she expressed a wish to leave the city for her hometown of Barry in South Wales. In 1945, she wrote to Gerald Cockshott: ‘I don’t want to stay in London – I just long to get home and live in comfort by the sea’. Williams did leave London, returning to Wales at the end of the Second World War and staying there until her death in 1977. Sea Sketches could be interpreted, therefore, as a wistful piece that recalls the comforts of the Welsh seaside at a time of war. In the dedication of the piece to her parents, Williams confirmed her connection to her Welsh roots, writing that they ‘had the good sense to set up home on the coast of Glamorgan’.
Hence, despite composing Sea Sketches in London, like all of Williams’s work, the piece has a distinctly Welsh character, inspired by the landscape where the composer grew up and later lived. It consists of five movements each associated with the sea conditions of the Glamorganshire coastline: ‘High Wind’ (Allegro energetico), ‘Sailing Song’ (Allegretto), ‘Channel Sirens’ (Lento misterioso), ‘Breakers’ (Presto), and ‘Calm Sea in Summer’ (Andante tranquillo). Williams’s work is largely tonal, as she did not capitulate to Schoenberg’s serialism which was influential on composers like Boulez, Messiaen, and Stockhausen at the time.
‘Sailing Song’ gently ebbs and flows. Whilst this movement was played beautifully by the BBC NOW string section, ‘Channel Sirens’ was performed with the most character. Here, Williams depicts a foggy, nocturnal seascape expressed perfectly by the strings’ use of glissandos and harmonics. Conductor Jaime Martín extracted these textures with an intensity and almost oriental flavour that, for a moment, brought to mind the music of some of Martín’s Spanish compatriots.
In their performance of Sea Sketches at Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall the following day (19 April), Martín told the audience that he is particularly excited to take Williams’s music on tour. He said that he loved the piece, adding that Williams ‘has her own language, it’s like nothing else. Of course there are things that remind you of Wagner, of Richard Strauss, but it’s her own language and I think that it’s a fantastic piece, especially [when] played by my colleagues of the BBC NOW so beautifully. I think it’s almost music that is in the DNA of this orchestra.’ It is great to hear that Williams’s Sea Sketches will constitute part of the BBC NOW’s repertoire. Interested readers can find the livestream of their performance in Cardiff on BBC iPlayer.
For Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No.3 Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai joined the BBC NOW. Winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990, Suwanai has established a reputation for herself as an international soloist. The texture of her playing was deeply sonorous and purposeful. Her runs were seamless, aided by her elegant bowing and poise.
Saint-Saëns wrote this concerto for the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate (of Zigeunerweisen fame) in 1880. In the second movement (Andantino quasi allegretto), the solo violin interacts with the woodwind section, creating a more intimate chamber-music dynamic. In the arpeggio passage near the end of this movement, the violinist must play harmonics and is joined by the clarinet. Throughout this section, Suwanai, Matthew Featherstone (flute), and Nicholas Carpenter (clarinet) engaged in a delightful conversation.
For the final movement, which begins with a distinctive opening chord and moves, slowly at first, into an energetic march-like allegro (Molto moderato e maestoso then Allegro non troppo), Suwanai played with vigour alongside the BBC NOW. Interestingly, her positioning on the stage was not front-and-centre, rather, she took a step back, signifying her desire to be part of the BBC NOW. At times, Suwanai faced the cello section, and during these moments she fitted her virtuosic part into the soundscape of the orchestra. This worked well, especially during the central movement.
The concert concluded with Elgar’s Enigma Variations. As the story goes, Elgar innocuously composed the melody that would become the kernel of the piece whilst sitting at the piano in his home in Worcestershire. When his wife, Alice, asked what he was playing, Elgar famously replied ‘nothing, but something may be made of it’. As those familiar with Shakespeare’s King Lear will know, much more than nothing comes of nothing! For Elgar, fourteen variations, each a portrait of his friends and a dedication to his wife, came of this so-called ‘nothing’. The music is almost a self-conscious expression of his desire to be recognised as a composer. Happily for Elgar, his completion of these variations would see him achieve the fame he sought.
The most famous variation, ‘Nimrod’ (IX), is widely known due to its use for state funerals, including those of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana. The BBC NOW played this movement with the emotive grandeur that you would expect of this oft-performed variation. Yet they also brought a dynamism to the movement, eschewing self-indulgence for a more nostalgic tone. Variation XII is dedicated to an amateur cellist (Basil George Nevinson) who played chamber music with Elgar. BBC NOW’s principal cellist Leo Popplewell played the opening and closing solo sections with sensitivity and clarity. There was a good sense of balance throughout with the orchestra measuring the intimacy of Elgar’s portraits against the widespread renown after which he yearned. One final note of praise must go to Phil Hughes on timpani, who played excellently, especially in variations IV and VII. In his use of the red-tipped timpani mallets – typically used during loud and fast passages to articulate clear, crisp sounds – Hughes was brilliant, adding that essential dynamism required to lift the Enigma Variations and offer contrast with the main theme that is at once noble (variation IX) and melancholic (variation XII).
Once again, Jaime Martín worked brilliantly with the BBC NOW, who demonstrated their versatility with these three pieces. This partnership is bringing out the best of the BBC NOW and, together, they are setting a very high bar indeed.
Lucy Jeffery