Penarth Music Chamber Festival is holding its twelfth socially-distanced live streamed performance this weekend to satiate the ears of the town's concert-deprived classical music fans.

The collective - comprised of husband and wife David Adams (leader of the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera) and Alice Neary (principal cellist of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales) and a host of other world class musicians - has been forced onto YouTube and Penarth Sounds throughout 2020 due to COVID-19.

They are best-known for their Summer Festival. Performed in the Pier Pavilion over four days in June, it is undoubtedly among the highlights of Penarth's events calendar.

With last year's event cancelled and this year's all up in the air, David and Alice are intent on live streaming as many shows as possible for their would-be Pier Pavilion audience.

"Alice and I are incredibly lucky in that we can make music together at home - but an essential ingredient is missing - an audience," David tells Nub News.

"A very fortunate casual conversation with sound engineer Andrew Smillie led to us being involved in the brand new Penarth Sounds local radio station broadcasting a weekly Chamber Music Hour on Wednesday evenings.

"Andrew very kindly agreed to broadcast last year's summer festival on the radio and suddenly live concerts, not just recordings, became a possibility again!

"We can fit several musicians in our coach house, socially distanced, and with Andrew managed to put on a live show from there. It all went very well and we effectively got our normal audience."

To pay musicians and cover production costs, David successfully applied for a Wales Cultural Recovery Fund grant. They are now crowdfunding for their spring concerts, hoping to raise £3,000 to enable the shows to go ahead.

Of these concerts, the first, Bohemian Winter, was streamed on 24 January. It has already been viewed over 2,000 times.

The next is taking place on Valentine's Day, though not by design.

"Well it's just an accident really, it seemed like the best weekend to do it and that just happened to be Valentine's Day, which is good because we've figured that no one will be going out!

"The songs haven't been chosen for their romance, but the Cello Sonata is a quite romantic piece and I'll be doing a Valentine's Day appropriate piece for the encore, so a good one for the occasion."

Alongside pianist Robin Green, the couple will be playing Brahms' Cello Sonata in E minor and Beethoven Violin Sonata Kreutzer.

During the interval, they will be having a discussion with Oxford Professor Laura Tunbridge, who has recently released a highly reviewed book on Beethoven.

This is a must-see for Penarth's classical music fans. After donating to the JustGiving page, one fan commented: "Superb medium for children... ours gather round telly in anticipation, scoff copious snacks, follow score on a tablet (if pos/wanted) and end up flopping on the floor in blissful reverie, perfect!"

Tune in to their YouTube channel or Penarth Sounds at 7:30pm on 14 February.