Two new BBC commissions were premiered in Wales over the weekend. Alun Hoddinott's Concerto for Trombone was performed on consecutive nights, but those of us at the premiere in Brecon's Theatr Brycheiniog heard what was too literally a dry run, whereas the BBC National Orchestra of Wales's second concert, under conductor Grant Llewellyn, enjoyed the splendid resonance of St David's Cathedral.

Given the early association of the trombone with sacred music, Hoddinott might have been expected to adopt a more sombre tone; in fact, his concerto was as playful, almost jazzy, as it was reflective, with its two extended movements adopting the baroque concerto pattern of dialogue between equal forces. It nevertheless proved the stamina, virtuosity and sleek tone of Mark Eager, the orchestra's principal trombonist.

St David's Cathedral was also the venue for the premiere of John Hardy's piece Not Darkness but Twilight, given by the BBC National Chorus of Wales under Adrian Partington. Hardy set extracts of poetry by RS Thomas, but in fulfilling his brief for a 15-minute piece he curbed the impulse to write a discursive work. The early settings seemed too slight and stilted. But The Bright Field, in which a shaft of sunlight is seen as a manifestation of the divine, inspired a fluent and altogether more intense outpouring in what was essentially a heartfelt requiem for both Thomas and Hardy's own father, who died within months of each other. It suggested that the forces - chorus accompanied by harp, organ and tuned percussion, heard later in Bernstein's stirring Chichester Psalms with countertenor Charles Humphries - could indeed have sustained a more substantial piece. The rich waves of sound in At the End confirmed as much.