Grace Williams' Violin Concerto

The music of Grace Williams (1906-1977) has always had a toe hold on the repertoire but more recently her music is being explored more widely. In 2006, she was Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3, which resulted in performances of works which had long lain dormant. In 2016 the BBC revived her large-scale Missa Cambrensis which had received such a poor first performance that it was never again performed in her lifetime, and earlier this year violinist Madeleine Mitchell released a disc of Williams' chamber music. Now it is the turn of Williams' Violin Concerto which Mitchell is performing tomorrow (Saturday 30 November 2019) with the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra, conductor Michael Turner, at St Mark's Church, Regent Park.

Williams wrote her concerto in 1950, a period when amazingly she was thinking of giving up composing. There will be further chances to hear the concerto as next March, Madeleine Mitchell will be performing it in concert with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Jamie Philips (see the BBC website for details). The link is apt, as the work was premiered by violinist Granville Jones with the BBC Welsh Orchestra (BBC NOW's predecessor), conductor Mansel Thomas.

Further details of Saturday's concert from the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra website.