We will be able to listen to one of Edward Elgar’s best-known and also most mysterious works: the Enigma Variations. In the words of the composer himself “the principal theme never appears, even as in some late dramas . . . the chief character is never on the stage.” It consists of a total of fourteen variations, each one dedicated to a friend that Elgar did not initially identify, an enigma that has still not been resolved one hundred and twenty years after the premiere.

The work will be entrusted to Jaime Martín, principal conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He will lead the BBC Wales National Orchestra in a programme that also includes Grace Williams’ evocative Sea Sketches suite, which portrays the movement of the sea in five movements.

Furthermore, the award-winning pianist Martín García García, who won first prize at the Cleveland International Competition (2021), will accompany them on this tour in the performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1.