A Welsh Prom celebration of the world of heroes and villains served as an ideal taster on Saturday afternoon to the world of classical music.

Aimed at the family, it was great to see people of all ages (and many small children) attending this event with music provided by the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra under conduction from Michael Bell and charismatic narration provided by TV presenter Barney Harwood.

Barney formed an integral part to the proceedings introducing segments of the orchestra and which part they would play, for instance the bold use of the brass section to represent the hero in Wagner‘s Lohengrin, Prelude to Act 3 and the use of the woodwind section representing strange looking creatures in Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain.

Rossini’s William Tell Overture drew in some audience participation as children pretended to ride horses akin to The Lone Ranger while Barney drew comparisons between the power of a magician’s wand and the conductor’s baton’s ability to control the sound of music during music performed from Harry Potter.

Next up was John Williams’ dark and sinister Darth Vader theme from Star Wars. The Cardiff Philharmonic’s treatment was both dark and brooding with suitable march-like beats from the percussion.

Finally Eric Coates Dambusters March remembered the real heroes of World War II with children pretending to conduct and grown ups imitating air craft pilots. As an encore there was a return to William Tell with Barney joining several children at the front of the stage to imitate riding horses. Hi Ho Silver! Indeed who said Classical music couldn’t be fun?