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Ryan Bancroft takes the Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales from the depths of a Spanish prison, through an American spiritual seen through German eyes, to end in the bustling capital of the newly formed Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Beethoven's opera Fidelio began life called Leonore, just as the main character of that opera did before she donned her disguise to free her wrongfully imprisoned husband. Beethoven struggled with the overture for that work, writing four different versions, but felt that the overture we'll hear tonight worked perfectly as a stand-alone piece. Bernd Alois Zimmermann made a name for himself as a composer in postwar Germany by drawing musical inspiration from a wide range of styles and genres, and he was known for using quotations frequently in his music. His Trumpet Concerto takes its title from the spiritual which is quoted within, which Zimmermann used in protest to the racial hatred that he saw developing in the society around him. After an interval looking at similarly neglected postwar composers, the concert concludes with Bruckner's Symphony No 0 or the Nullte, the title taken from the ∅ or null symbol which Bruckner despondently wrote over the manuscript. The work was written in Vienna between his first and second symphony, but after the criticism of a single conductor it was withdrawn, and only rightfully included in his main body of symphonies after his death.

Al Ryan presents live from Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff.

7.30pm
Beethoven: Leonore Overture No 3 in C major, Op 72b
Zimmermann: Trumpet Concerto in C (Nobody knows de trouble I see)

8.10pm
Interval Music

8.30pm
Bruckner: Symphony in D minor, WAB 100 (No. 0, Nullte)

Simon Höfele (trumpet)
Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales
Ryan Bancroft (conductor)