National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

In the early stages of his career Holbrooke was regarded by most of his older colleagues as quite definitely the 'bad boy' of English music, and he had to fight hard for anything like adequate recognition of his original gifts. He proved himself to be well equipped for that task too; that he has now won something like an assured position is largely the outcome of his unyielding faith in his own work. Among those who helped him with encouragement and understanding was the poet T. E. Ellis, whose great work, 'The Cauldron of Annwn,' Holbrooke was anxious to compose as an operatic trilogy; the project gradually took shape and was carried to successful completion. The subject, taken from the old Welsh mythology, is one in which Holbrooke's romantic temperament found full scope, and the music is vivid and forceful, in keeping with the tragic, passionate story. The first opera in the trilogy was played in Hammerstein's ill-fated London Opera House in 1912, Nikisch and Holbrooke himself conducting alternately. Its name is The Children of Don. The second, Dylan, appeared at Drury Lane in 1913 under Sir Thomas Beecham's direction, and in later years, the first has been heard in Vienna and Salzburg. Bronwen, the third opera of the series, was given its first performance in February of this year, by the Carl Rosa Opera Company, at Huddersfield.
Its Prelude is a big and impressive tone poem in which there are three important themes; the last is a very old and well-loved Welsh folk song.