For the second year Classic FM came to Cardiff to record a concert with a strong Valentine’s Day feel.

The whole effect was enhanced with romantic coloured lighting , and pyrotechnics from the back of the stage. These were not the only fireworks as diminutive soloist H.J.Lim, dressed in flowing black, featured in the centrepiece of the first half. There are few better known concertos than Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto, mainly due to its association with the film Brief Encounter. This was a powerful reading with fast tempi, full of ultra-Romantic impulsiveness and making light of the many virtuosic demands on the pianist . Having already recorded the full cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas (the youngest performer ever to do this) she is clearly a star in the making.

The concert had begun with Tchaikowsky ( the waltz from ‘Sleeping Beauty’) and Shostakovitch (the Romance from ‘The Gadfly’). There followed Tara’s theme from ‘Gone with the Wind’ and the second half featured harpist Claire Jones in the theme from ‘Love Actually’ and ‘Heartstrings’, an engagement present for her from composer Chris Marshall. Guitarist Craig Ogden gave the first performance of Howard Goodall’s ‘Inspired’ and there were two Neopolitan lovesongs (and a short comedic interlude ) from tenor Wynne Evans.

The excellent orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, conducted unobtrusively by Frédéric Chaslin, was heard at its best in part of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Sheherazade’ with particularly lovely solos on violin and flute. It ended proceedings with, what else on this night of love, Tchaikowsky’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’.