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RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra announces 2012–2013 Season and a continuation of its relationship with Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce plans for its 2012–2013 Season led by the artistic team of Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev, Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu and Associate Artist Finghin Collins, and the continuation of its relationship with Alan Buribayev as Principal Conductor for a further two years.

Overview
With nearly 90 events confirmed to date, the 2012–2013 Main Season running from September to May is almost 70 events at the National Concert Hall and a range of Beyond the Season events running from September to June at the National Concert Hall, the Convention Centre, the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and at venues in Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

Partnerships and collaborations are important elements both in the main season and beyond. They will see the RTÉ NSO join forces with Pipeworks and the National Concert Hall, the Contemporary Music Centre, Wide Open Music, Wide Open Opera, the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition and the John Murray Show, RTÉ Radio 1. All Main Season concerts will be broadcast live on RTÉ lyric fm.

Full details of the season, including a digital version of the season brochure, can be viewed on www.rte.ie/nso 

Main Season outline

The Main Season, opening on Friday 14 September, presents itself across 30 performances and a range of related events such as pre and post concert talks, Early and Late Night concerts and, for the third year running as part of the Main Season, the mentoring scheme for advanced young musicians. As with last season, the Main Season will include Sunday afternoon concerts as well as the regular Friday night and New Year’s Day performances.

 

Main Season price and value: The focus on price and value remains. With the exception of New Year’s Day, ticket prices for Main Season orchestral concerts once again start at €10 with five price options available.  Student stand-by tickets on the evening of performances are €5 (subject to availability) and discounts are available for senior citizens, students and the unwaged.

Early Evening concerts and pre and post concert talks are free to all and Late Night concerts are free to main concert attendees. 100 free tickets will continue to be available for the main evening concert on Culture Night on Friday 21 September.

Concert deals: Savings are available for those who buy 3–16 concerts with discounted Main Season concert package deals starting at €28.50 and savings of up to €300 available on the Full Main Season package of 29 concerts.

Beyond the Season outline

Beyond the Season events include Horizons, the contemporary music series which continues to be available free of charge; Tristan and Isolde, and Rain Falling Up, a modern orchestral, choral and visual performance for children involving a total of 1000 children and a chorus of older singers.

Beyond the Season events will also see the orchestra in concerts with a more popular focus. Back by popular demand are The Best of Symphonic Rock and A Night at the Oscars, both presented by RTÉ Radio 1 presenter Shay Byrne at the National Concert Hall, and The Three Sopranos Gala presented in association with the John Murray Show, RTÉ Radio 1 at both the National Concert Hall and, for the first time, also on tour. New to this popular strand is An Evening with Eimear Quinn which features the innovative Dublin Laptop Orchestra working with the RTÉ NSO for the first time and world premieres of Very Pointy by Dublin Laptop Orchestra founder member Alex Dowling and Whisper City by Dublin Laptop Orchestra performer Emma O’Halloran.

Beyond the Season price and value: Nine events beyond the season are free. They are the five organ recitals taking place in conjunction with Pipeworks and the National Concert Hall and the four Horizons concerts. Child prices for family events are €10.

All other Beyond the Season events promoted by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra offer a range of ticket prices. Prices start at €10 (The Best of Symphonic Rock and A Night at the Oscars), €12 (The Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition) and €15 (The Three Sopranos Christmas Gala).

Partnerships and collaborations

Relationships developed in previous seasons with Pipeworks and the National Concert Hall will see a series of solo organ recitals linked to main evening repertoire taking place ahead of five Main Season concerts. The free Composer in Conversation talks ahead of the individual Horizons concerts will continue in association with the Contemporary Music Centre.

A new association with Wide Open Opera will see the RTÉ NSO perform in three performances of Tristan and Isolde at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, and a new association with Wide Open Music will see the first Dublin performances of Rain Falling Up, a modern orchestral, choral and visual performance for children involving a total of 1000 children and a chorus of older singers.

Booking dates

Priority booking for the Main Season opens on Wednesday 18 July. Public package booking for the Main Season opens on Tuesday 31 July. All events beyond the main season promoted by the RTÉ NSO are on sale from Wednesday 18 July.

Programming and People

Highlights include

  • the continuation in the Main Season of themed strands built around the artistic team of Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev, Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu and Associate Artist Finghin Collins
  • Main Season performances by international artists including pianists Lilya Zilberstein and Kirill Gerstein, cellist Alban Gerhardt, violinists Julian Rachlin, Baiba Skride, Ilya Gringolts and Eldbjørg Hemsing, harpist Xavier de Maistre and conductors Rafael Payare and Jonathan Cohen and Irish artists including sopranos Celine Byrne singing Mahler and Miriam Murphy singing Wagner.
  • the continuation in the Main Season of performances directed by the soloist (Finghin Collins, Howard Shelley and Julian Rachlin)
  • the continuation in the Main Season of programme strands introduced in previous seasons (Prokofiev symphonies, Mozart and Beethoven piano concerti, Mozart violin concerti and French music)
  • a Wagner celebration in the Main Season marking the 200th anniversary of his birth
  • the continuation of the choral masterworks strand in the Main Season featuring works by Beethoven, Verdi, Sibelius, and Poulenc in the 50th anniversary year of his death. In addition to featuring the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, this strand will include performances by guest choirs including the Polytech Choir from Finland
  • world premieres of two new works in the Main Season by Irish composers: Violin Concerto by Frank Corcoran with RTÉ NSO Leader Alan Smale as soloist and Christopher Warren-Green conducting, and The True Truths, commissioned by RTÉ from the young Irish composer Andrew Hamilton and conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu
  • the second Irish performance of John Kinsella’s Tenth Symphony, with Irish conductor Gavin Maloney conducting this as part of the Main Season
  • the continuation of the Horizons contemporary music series, in 2013 featuring composers Raymond Deane in his 60th birthday year, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ NSO Composer-in-Residence Linda Buckley and Ann Cleare and Jonathan Nangle.

Horizons will include works by six Irish composers, including three world premieres –  one by Jonathan Nangle (title to be announced) and two by Anne Cleare (phôsphors and to another of the other), and two Irish premieres –  turn, 2nd movement by Linda Buckley and Stórr by her sister Irene Buckley

  • the continuation of the mentoring scheme for advanced young musicians as part of the Main Season. In 2012-2013 this will take place in conjunction with the 30 November performance which includes Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 conducted by the young Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, winner of the 2012 Malko International Conducting Competition and former assistant to Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel
  • the continuation as part of the Main Season of Soundings, the free pre-concert talks and conversations with season artists, composers and guests from other fields.
  • the continuation of FORTE! the RTÉ NSO’s Musical Discovery programme led by the RTÉ NSO Creative Advisor, Paul Rissmann. In addition to the mentoring scheme for young musicians, events confirmed include Global Express, a family concert for young children at the National Concert Hall, and Rain Falling Up, a modern orchestral, choral and visual performance for children involving a total of 1000 children and a chorus of older singers
  • the continuation of the orchestra’s association with the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition Final on Thursday 31 January 2013.

Artistic team

The artistic team features in 15 of the 30 Main Season performances.

The season opening on Friday 14 September will see Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev and Associate Artist Finghin Collins collaborate on Mozart for the first time in Ireland with the suitably celebratory ‘Coronation’ concerto. On Friday 9 November, Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu and Finghin Collins will collaborate for the first time ever, with Mozart’s dark and brilliant No. 24, considered by many to be his greatest, being the featured work.

Principal Conductor Series

Alan Buribayev’s seven concerts will see him focus on masterworks from the German and Russian repertoire and will include Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Khachaturian and Shostakovich as well as Mozart with Finghin Collins. His Prokofiev symphonies cycle continues with performances of both the Fourth Symphony in its original version and the Fifth.

Other international artists with whom he will collaborate include Lilya Zilberstein performing Saint-Saëns ‘Egyptian’ piano concerto, Kirill Gerstein performing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, Alban Gerhardt performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor and the young virtuoso violinist Edoardo Zosi in the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1.

Principal Guest Conductor Series

Hannu Lintu’s four concerts will include popular works by Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Saint-Saëns as well as less frequently heard works by Ginastera and Sibelius and the world premiere of Andrew Hamilton’s The True Truths commissioned by RTÉ.

His concerts will also feature French virtuoso harpist Xavier de Maistre, making his RTÉ NSO debut performing Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp, and Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts, making a welcome return to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. In his final concert as Principal Guest Conductor, Hannu will return to his own musical heritage for an all-Finnish programme featuring performances of the first (Kullervo) and last works (Tapiola) by Sibelius.

Associate Artist

2012–2013 will also see the culmination of Finghin Collins’ three year period as the first RTÉ NSO Associate Artist. He will complete his survey of the 23 Mozart piano concerti and his Beethoven project featuring performances of all five piano concerti, the ‘Triple’ concerto, the Choral Fantasy and Beethoven’s own transcription of his violin concerto.

Across his six concerts he will perform eight Mozart concerti including the Concerto for Three Pianos which he will direct for the first time from the keyboard, with Dearbhla Collins and Hugh Tinney joining as soloists. With Les Arts Florissants Associate Conductor Jonathan Cohen, a musician acquiring considerable praise as a conductor, cellist, director and keyboardist in the area of baroque and period performance, Finghin will return to the Sunday afternoon slot for his focus on Beethoven; it will include the popular No. 4 in G, the Choral Fantasy – one of the few works for piano, choir and orchestra – featuring a cast of young Irish singers and the Guinness Choir, and Beethoven’s own transcription of his Violin Concerto

Comment from Séamus Crimmins, Executive Director, RTÉ Performing Groups and Acting General Manager, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

‘This new RTÉ NSO season will, I feel, find wide appeal. We will present great music from the classical to modern eras in compelling performances with Irish and international artists of exceptional depth and brilliance. In addition to the core season we look forward to several key partnerships and meeting new audiences. In particular, I welcome back Hannu, Finghin, and Alan who, happily, has agreed to extend his contract to 2015. Join us for more music which will move and excite in incomparable live performances.’

Comment from Alan Buribayev, Principal Conductor, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

‘I am proud and very happy to continue as Principal Conductor with this wonderful group of musicians. I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for the trust placed in me and for this decision to continue working together. I hope that the seasons to come will bring us even more joy in music-making.’

Full concert and booking information on pages following.

Full season detail available on www.rte.ie/nso  

 

For further information or images, please contact:

 Assumpta Lawless                                          OR       Maria Buckley

Marketing & Communications Manager                   Marketing & Communications Assistant

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra                            RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

Email: Assumpta.lawless@rte.ie                                Email: maria.buckley@rte.ie

Direct line: 01 208 2769                                             Direct line: 01 208 2773

Mobile: 087 290 4168                                                 Mobile: 087 410 0516

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season

  

Friday 14 September 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season
Principal Conductor Series | Associate Artist Series | Mozart Piano Concerti Cycle

VIENNESE WHIRLS
Lehár                Gold and Silver Waltz, Op. 79 (8′)
Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 26 in D, K537 ‘Coronation’ [28’]
R. Strauss        Der Rosenkavalier Suite, Op. 59 [22’]
Ravel               La valse [12’]

 

Finghin Collins piano
Alan Buribayev conductor

 

PRICELESS MELODIES PRAISING PRECIOUS METALS IN LEHÁR’S INFECTIOUSLY SPARKLING GOLD AND SILVER WALTZ PROVE THE PERFECT CURTAIN RAISER FOR OUR NEW SEASON, opening under Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev. The mood of Viennese gaiety and glitter continues with a suite of glorious music from Richard Strauss’ seductive ‘comedy for music’ Der Rosenkavalier, and the sardonic, waltz-like rapture of Ravel’s La valse. And Associate Artist Finghin Collins returns to his distinguished survey of Mozart’s piano concertos with the brilliantly amiable and suitably celebratory ‘Coronation’ Concerto.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

Austrian Ambassador, Dr Walter Hagg on the evening’s programme

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 21 September 2012, 6.10pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The National Concert Hall present

PIPEWORKS

 

Mendelssohn               Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 65 [16’]

Sweelinck                    Onder een linde groen [6’]

Liszt                             Weinen Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen [8’]

 

Mark Duley organ

 

Tchaikovsky famously outlined a programmatic element to the first movement of his Fourth

Symphony (to be heard in the evening’s Main Season concert); tonight’s programme presents organ works which follow a similar broad outline of fate/despair moving to resignation/ hope. Tchaikovsky’s final movement incorporates the folk song The little birch tree, here mirrored in Sweelinck’s set of variations on Under the linden tree.

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 21 September 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Soloist Directs Series | Culture Night 2012

 

Marching towards hope and Happiness

Elgar                Froissart Overture, Op. 19 [12’]
Schumann       Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 [31’]

Tchaikovsky        Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 [44’]

 

Howard Shelley piano/conductor

 

PIANIST/CONDUCTOR HOWARD SHELLEY MAKES A WELCOME RETURN for three works full to the brim with youthful dreams of adventure and love. Described by the composer as ‘shameless in its rude good health’, Elgar’s tune-filled Froissart Overture is a sumptuous romance of knightly endeavours, while Schumann and Tchaikovsky provide two of the greatest expressions of musical Romanticism: the Piano Concerto joyfully dynamic and spontaneous, the Fourth Symphony an emotional tour de force that blazes with passion.

 

FREE Pre-concert with RTÉ Cór na nÓg in the John Field Room, 7pm

 

Culture Night: 100 free tickets will be available for Culture Night 2012 from August. See www.rte.ie/nso for details

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Sunday 30 September 5pm, Wednesday 3 October 6pm, Saturday 6 October 5pm

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre


Wide Open Opera, in association with Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, presents a production originated in Welsh National Opera

 

WAGNER Tristan and Isolde

 

Operas Greatest Love Story

 

REGARDED BY MANY AS THE GREATEST OPERATIC ACHIEVEMENT OF ALL TIME, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is presented by new Irish opera company Wide Open Opera in a production originating from Welsh National Opera, originally directed and designed by Yannis Kokkos.  A once in a lifetime event – just three performances of opera’s most ravishing love story.

Spanning a performance time of five hours, this epic production features the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the chorus of Wide Open Opera and leading Irish singers Miriam Murphy (Isolde) and Imelda Drumm (Brangäne) alongside international artists Lars Cleveman (Tristan), Brett Polegato (Kurwenal) and Manfred Hemm (König Marke). Owen Gilhooly (Shepherd), Eugene Ginty (Melot), Eamonn Mulhall (Sailor) and Gavan Ring (Steersman) also perform. Fergus Sheil conducts.

 

Opening on a voyage between Ireland and England, the Irish princess Isolde has been captured by the English knight Tristan as a trophy wife for his uncle King Mark. The unintended drinking of a love potion sets the couple off on the most passionate but illicit relationship – an all-consuming love affair that causes devastation and can only be fully consummated through death.

 

For more information see:  www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
Tickets: €15, €35, €45, €65, €85

Booking: 0818 719 377 | www.ticketmaster.ie

 

 

Friday 5 October 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

The best of symphonic rock

with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

 

David Arnold conductor

Presented by Shay Byrne RTÉ Radio 1

 

LET US ENTERTAIN YOU!

 

GET THE ROCK AND POP STAR TREATMENT as we unleash the full power of the RTÉ  National Symphony Orchestra performing awesome rock and pop classics from Queen, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, The Beatles and more. Includes Can’t Buy Me Love, Eye of the Tiger, Thriller, Fix You,Wind Beneath My Wings, We Will Rock You, Simply The Best and much much more.

 

GO ON! LET YOUR HAIR DOWN AND ROCK OUT TO THE ICONIC ANTHEMS OF YOUR FAVOURITE SUPER GROUPS.

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Friday 12 October 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series

 

From Poland with Love

Glinka              Polish Dances from A Life for the Tsar [15’]

Chopin             Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 [32’]

Tchaikovsky     Symphony No. 3 in D, Op. 29 ‘Polish’ [45’]

 

Hisako Kawamura piano

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

BRILLIANT PIANO WRITING AND RAVISHING ORCHESTRAL ACCOMPANIMENT shot through with the vitality of traditional Polish dances are the hallmarks of the Second Piano Concerto by Chopin, Poland’s greatest composer, with its haunting nocturne a soulful declaration of unrequited love. Polish dances feature prominently, too, in Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar and in Tchaikovsky’s colourful and lyrical Third Symphony, where we hear a gracious waltz and a rousing polonaise.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

Pianist Conor Linehan on Chopin’s writing for solo piano and for solo piano with orchestra

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 19 October 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

Choral Masterworks | RTÉ Big Music Week 2012

FATE KNOCKING AT THE DOOR

Beethoven       Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 [31’]
Verdi               Four Sacred Pieces [39’]

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir (Mark Hindley chorus master)
Kenneth Montgomery conductor

TWO MIGHTY AND MAJESTIC WORKS, GLORIOUS HYMNALS TO THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE, demonstrate the imaginative and emotional power of music to excite and to comfort. With its tumultuous opening motif – famously described as ‘thus fate knocks at the door’ – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is a masterpiece of propulsive energy that makes full use of a symphony orchestra at its most expressive. Verdi’s sublime Four Sacred Pieces combines unaccompanied voices and voices-and-orchestra (the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir) in moments of serene and breathtaking beauty.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir Chorus Master Mark Hindley with RTÉ Choral Officer Lesley Bishop on his first season at the helm of the choir

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 26 October 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season


Principal Guest Conductor Series


THE NOBLE, THE SENTIMENTAL AND THE EXOTIC

Ravel                                       Valses nobles et sentimentales [16’]

Ginastera                                Concerto for Harp, Op. 25 [23’]

Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel)       Pictures at an Exhibition [35’]

 

Xavier de Maistre harp

Hannu Lintu conductor

 

SUAVE FRENCH HARPIST XAVIER DE MAISTRE TAKES CENTRE STAGE for Argentinian Alberto Ginastera’s exotic and exciting Harp Concerto, which puts his country’s native folk melodies and rhythms to magnificently colourful use. No less rich and dynamic is Mussorgsky’s masterful Pictures at an Exhibition, which brings 10 paintings by the Russian painter Viktor Hartmann to enthralling and vivacious life. Ravel’s deliciously tongue-in-cheek set of Schubert-inspired waltzes will keep you guessing to the end about which of them is ‘noble’ and which ‘sentimental’.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

DIT Head of Orchestra Studies Dr Cliona Doris with Xavier de Maistre

­

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Saturday 27 October 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra presents
An Evening with Eimear Quinn and the Dublin Laptop Orchestra

 

O’Riada                       Olynthiac Overture (7’)
O’Riada                       The Banks of Sulan (9’)
O’Riada                       Mná na hÉireann (3’)
Brendan Graham        Cruchán na bPáiste (4’)
Thomas Moore           Silent, O Moyle (4’)
Eimear Quinn              In Paradisum (4’)
Canteloube                  Bailero (Songs of the Auvergne) (7’)
O’Riada                       Seoladh na nGamhan (The Herding of the Calves) (9’)
Emma O’Halloran       Whisper City (8’)
Alex Dowling               Very Pointy (world premiere) (10’)
Aloys Fleischmann      Na Ceithre Máistirí (Réamhcheol) (16’)

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Eimear Quinn voice
Dublin Laptop Orchestra

David Brophy conductor

 

“A beautiful young woman with a cherubs voice that floats in an ethereal cloud of its own making” The Sunday Independent

 

Eimear Quinn’s haunting, ethereal sound won the hearts of millions with her 1996 Eurovision Song Contest winning performance of Brendan Graham’s The Voice. As a best-selling recording artist and performer, her highly distinctive sound and her interpretations inspire. In this her first collaboration with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, she will embrace a span of repertoire ranging from the Irish tradition to the contemporary.

 

This unique evening includes the fragile beauty of Thomas Moore’s Silent, O Moyle, Sean O’Riada’s Mná na hÉireann, Brendan Graham’s haunting Cruchán na bPáiste and Eimear’s own setting of In Paradisum. With the innovative Dublin Laptop Orchestra – who “make music with lots of laptops, hands, golf controllers, a wireless router, and anyone that plays.. anything” and who aims “to bring some theatricality and ‘physical presence’ into electronic music performance” with a focus on folk music – she will perform with the Dublin Laptop Orchestra the world premiere of Whisper City by Emma O’Halloran, ‘ taking inspiration from the American podcast show www.whispercities.org’ and exploring the ‘secret music’ of Dublin streets.

 

Orchestral works include the power and poetry of Aloys Fleischmann’s Na Ceithre Máistirí (Réamhcheol) and Séan Ó Riada stirring Olynthiac Overture, The Banks of Sulan, Seoladh na nGamhan (The Herding of the Calves) and, with the Dublin Laptop Orchestra, the world premiere of Very Pointy by Dublin Laptop Orchestra founder Alex Dowling.

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32
Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 2 November 2012, 6.10pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The National Concert Hall present

PIPEWORKS

 

Whitlock          Sonata in C minor [45’]

 

David Leigh organ

 

This complex and monumental work is linked with Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, first heard by Whitlock in 1934 and referred to cryptically in the Sonata’s dedication. Whitlock’s unashamedly lush romantic style owes much to the older composer, and marks him out as an important if somewhat neglected figure in the twentieth-century canon of organ music.

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 2 November 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE AND LOSS
Arvo Pärt         Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten [6’]

Frank Corcoran           Violin Concerto (world premiere) [17’]

Rachmaninov  Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 [60’]

 

Alan Smale violin

Christopher Warren-Green conductor

 

RTÉ NSO LEADER ALAN SMALE GIVES THE FIRST PERFORMANCE of Frank Corcoran’s ‘taut, lean, lyrical, leppin’’ and song-like Violin Concerto that combines, the composer says, ‘fiddling fun, violinistic seriousness and art’s sorrow, and fast, furious, last orchestral thoughts’. Estonian Arvo Pärt’s bewitching, prayer-like elegy for Britten is a haunting recognition of a lost kindred spirit, and Rachmaninov’s swooningly beautiful Second Symphony could have no better champion than the dynamic conductor Christopher Warren-Green.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Conductor Colman Pearce with Irish composer Frank Corcoran

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 9 November 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Guest Conductor Series |Associate Artist Series | Mozart Piano Concerti Cycle

 

GRACE OUT OF DARKNESS

Andrew Hamilton        The True Truths (RTÉ commission, world premiere) [10’]

Mozart                                    Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491 [31’]

Brahms                                    Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

 

Finghin Collins piano

Hannu Lintu conductor

 

PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR HANNU LINTU AND ASSOCIATE ARTIST FINGHIN COLLINS TEAM UP FOR THE FIRST TIME. Mozart’s grandest Piano Concerto, its dark, menacing atmospheres sounding like storm clouds lit up by brilliant lightning flashes, is the focus. Starting in defiance and ending in tragic resignation, Brahms’ final symphony offers music of bleak but beautiful gracefulness. The world premiere of Dubliner Andrew Hamilton’s RTÉ-commissioned The True Truths feeds ‘a song into the orchestra and becomes destroyed, mangled and bashed’ to explore ‘the meanings that can hide behind seemingly simple ideas’.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ lyric fm’s Bernard Clarke with Irish composer Andrew Hamilton

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Saturday 10 November, 12 noon & 5pm, Convention Centre Dublin

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Presented as part of FORTE! The RTÉ NSO’s Musical Discovery Programme

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Wide Open Music present

RAIN FALLING UP

A MODERN ORCHESTRAL, CHORAL AND VISUAL PERFORMANCE FOR CHILDREN

 

Performed with live, big-screen animation, symphony orchestra, a 500-strong children’s chorus, a narrator and a chorus of older singers.

 

‘Jake knew things. He knew that the world weighed 6 septillion kilos – that’s a six with 24 zeros – but in fact he knew that it weighed nothing at all!’

 

And so the story begins… Jake is a little boy who knows things. Jake is a walking encyclopedia and his speciality is gravity. One day, however, after being blamed for breaking his mum’s favourite vase, he comes to the conclusion that gravity isn’t his friend anymore. So he builds himself a gravity switch so he can turn gravity off. Life seems so much more fun when you can float but when Jake finds himself drifting alone through the darkest corners of the universe he realises that perhaps he has made a mistake.

 

Music by Brian Irvine

Words by John McIlduff

Animation by Matthew Robins

Conductor Fergus Sheil

 

1,000 school children from Carlow, Meath, Offaly, Dublin, Westmeath and Wicklow are involved in Rain Falling Up. The older singers come from South Dublin and Wicklow.

 

Supported by the Arts Council and local authorities in Carlow, Meath, Offaly, South Dublin, Westmeath and Wicklow.

 

Free pre-concert foyer performances, 11.30am & 4.30pm

World premiere of a new orchestral work composed for the occasion by Brian Irvine. Performed by the Julianstown Youth Orchestra and conducted by the composer.

11.30am & 4.30pm

Tickets: €15 (full price) | €10 (children)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 23 November 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

TURKISH DELIGHT AND TARTAN

Schnittke         Moz-art à la Haydn [12’]

Mozart                        Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K219 ‘Turkish’ [31’]

Mendelssohn   Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ‘Scottish’ [40’]

 

Baiba Skride violin

Michael Francis conductor

 

TWO OF TODAY’S MOST SOUGHT-AFTER YOUNG TALENTS – VIOLINIST BAIBA SKRIDE AND

CONDUCTOR MICHAEL FRANCIS – TEAM UP as our survey of Mozart’s violin concertos continues with the ‘Turkish’, a magnificently colourful dialogue between soloist and orchestra brimming with wild exoticism. Schnittke’s Moz-Art à la Haydn takes playful delight in reworking a Mozart fragment with a liberal helping of Haydn for added humour. Mendelssohn’s glorious picture postcard of his travels in Scotland, the effusive and evocative Third Symphony, is every bit as rich and romantic as the Scottish Highlands.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ NSO Associate Artist Finghin Collins with Baiba Skride on Mozart Concerti cycles

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 30 November 2012, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Mentoring Scheme 2012

DREAMS, DEFIANCE AND LEAVE-TAKING

R. Strauss        Don Juan, Op. 20 [17’]

Mozart                        Clarinet Concerto in A, K622 [25’]

Shostakovich   Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 [55’]

 

John Finucane clarinet

Rafael Payare conductor

with 2012 Mentoring Scheme participants

 

RTÉ NSO PRINCIPAL CLARINET JOHN FINUCANE AND THE YOUNG RISING-STAR, VENEZUELAN CONDUCTOR RAFAEL PAYARE, STEP INTO THE LIMELIGHT for Mozart’s hauntingly beautiful Clarinet Concerto, regarded by many as among the finest music ever written for the instrument. Taking delight in a youthful virtuosity that all but boils over with incident, drama and wit, Richard Strauss’s heroic tone poem Don Juan boasts enormous vim and irresistible vitality. And Shostakovich’s mighty Tenth Symphony offers a powerful and moving ‘testament of misery’ to life under Stalin’s thumb.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Royal Irish Academy of Music Director Deborah Kelleher with 2012 Mentoring Scheme participants

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Wednesday 19 December 2012, 3.15pm & 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra presents
The Three Sopranos Christmas Gala
In Association with The John Murray Show, RTÉ Radio 1

 

Celine Byrne soprano

Regina Nathan soprano

Cara O’Sullivan soprano

John Finucane conductor

Presented by John Murray, RTÉ Radio 1

 

‘A feast for the soul and the spirit. I even forgot there were serious financial worries in Ireland for those two blissful hours’. So said one satisfied customer about The Three Sopranos Christmas Gala 2011, one of the RTÉ NSO’s runaway successes last year with two sold-out shows, standing ovations and lots of smiling faces greeting the festive mix of operatic favourites, seasonal carols, Christmas songs and orchestral music.

 

Now it’s back for another glorious and uplifting mix of vocal and orchestral seasonal favourites without which Christmas would not be complete – Silent Night, O Holy Night, Leroy Anderson’s festive Christmas Festival and more.

 

Tickets: €15, €27, €34, €42.50 (concessions €13.50, €24, €31, €38)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Tuesday 1 January 2013, 2.30pm & 6.30pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

STRICTLY COME WALTZING (New Year’s Day Celebration)

 

Orla Boylan soprano

Gerhard Markson conductor

Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm

 

PUT YOUR GLAD RAGS ON AND JOIN THE CELEBRATIONS TO WELCOME IN THE NEW YEAR IN STYLE as we sing and dance our way to 19th-century Vienna for a thrilling mix of opera and operetta favourites, waltzes and polkas by Suppé and the Strauss family. Luxuriate in the polished, martial splendour of the Light Cavalry Overture and Radetzky March; surrender to the beauty of the Blue Danube Waltz, swoon to love-lit songs from Die Fledermaus (Czardas), My Fair Lady (I Could Have Danced All Night) and by Franz Lehár (Meine lippen, sie küssen so heiss). A New Year’s Day to sparkle and glitter accompanied by some of the most vivacious and tuneful music ever written.

 

Tickets: €12, €21, €27, €33, €38 (concessions €11, €19, €24, €30, €34)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 4 January 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

THE LORD OF THE RING

Wagner 200th Birthday Celebration

 

Wagner

Rienzi Overture [12’]

Wesendonck Lieder [21’]

Ride of the Valkyries [5’]

Tannhäuser Overture [14’]

Prelude and Liebestod (Tristan and Isolde) [17’]

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg [9’]

 

Miriam Murphy soprano

Matthias Bamert conductor

 

HAILED AS A SOPRANO ‘BORN TO SING WAGNER’ (THE IRISH TIMES), Tralee-born Miriam Murphy received a standing ovation on her last appearance with the RTÉ NSO. She returns to mark the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth as we celebrate his towering genius with some of his greatest music. Wallow in Tristan’s swooning Prelude and soaring Liebestod, indulge in the magnificence of the Tannhäuser and Meistersinger Overtures, thrill to the vertiginous Ride of the Valkyries (popularised in the film Apocalypse Now), and melt with the Wesendonck Lieder, ravishing expressions of love at its most infatuated and intense, about which the composer declared: ‘I have done nothing better than these songs’.

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Former director of the National Concert Hall Judith Woodworth with Matthias Bamert on Wagner and his music

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 11 January 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season


Principal Guest Conductor Series

 

TO LIFE! TO LOVE!

Dvořák             Carnival Overture, Op. 92 [10’]

Tchaikovsky     Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 [33’]

Saint-Saëns      Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 ‘Organ Symphony’ [36’]

 

Ilya Gringolts violin

Hannu Lintu conductor

 

A TRIO OF WORKS THAT SPARKLE AND POP with all the delicious effervescence of fine champagne promise an intoxicating evening. Regarded as ‘one of the most inspirational violinists today’ (The Financial Times), Ilya Gringolts returns for the ecstatic love song that is Tchaikovsky’s luxurious Violin Concerto. And Principal Guest Conductor Hannu Lintu guarantees fireworks aplenty from both Dvořák’s brilliantly boisterous celebration of life – the Carnival Overture, and the glorious ‘Organ Symphony’ of Saint-Saëns, a highlight of the charming film about that loveable ‘sheep-pig’, Babe.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ NSO Principal Clarinet John Finucane with Ilya Gringolts

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 18 January 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Associate Artist Series | Soloist Directs Series | Mozart Piano Concerti Cycle

 

CELESTIAL FIELDS

Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat, K449 [21’]

Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 16 in D, K451 [21’]

Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K453 [30’]

Finghin Collins piano/director

 

FINGHIN COLLINS CONTINUES HIS JOURNEY INTO THE VERY HEART OF MOZART’S SENSE

OF HIMSELF as a composer with three of the six piano concertos he composed in 1784. Operatically intense, the dark and melancholic 14th ushered in a period of astonishing maturity and innovation,

Mozart describing the 16th, which echoes Haydn and revels in ingenuity of the most entertaining kind, as a work ‘to make the performer sweat’. The 17th, one of the wittiest and richest of all his piano concertos, delightfully evokes ‘celestial fields where the flocks of gods go grazing’.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

UCD Choral Scholar Director Desmond Earley on Mozart and his travels

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Tuesday 22 January 2013, 1.05pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Horizons 2013: Contemporary Music Series| FREE

Featured composer: Linda Buckley (RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ NSO Composer-in-Residence)

 

Linda Buckley             chiyo (RTÉ  commission) [9’]

Linda Buckley              turn, 2nd movement (Irish premiere) [6’]

Irene Buckley              Stórr for orchestra without percussion (Irish premiere) [9’]

Linda Buckley              Fall Approaches for string orchestra and electronics [9’]

Linda Buckley              Surge (RTÉ  commission) [10’]

 

Gavin Maloney conductor

 

‘MUCH OF THIS MUSIC IS INSPIRED BY LANDSCAPE AND POETRY – from the clean pure haiku of Japan in chiyo (“cool clear water, the beauty of hidden things”) to the work of thirteenth century Persian poet Rumi in turn (‘Turn as the earth and moon turn, circling what they love’) to the gaelic psalmody of Stórr evoking the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The poetic landscape of Iceland inspires Fall Approaches with the ancient practice of rimur chant (“Soon we will not see the sun, soon the river will be frozen”). This is a concert presenting the work of two sisters, born on a barren and isolated peninsula of haunting beauty, jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean – a connecting thread of dramatic geography, at once wild and rugged.’ Linda Buckley

 

12.30pm: Composers in Conversation (In association with Contemporary Music Centre)

Contemporary Music Centre Director Evonne Ferguson with composer Linda Buckley

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Friday 25 January 2013, 6.10pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The National Concert Hall present

PIPEWORKS

 

Schoenberg     Variations on a Recitative, Op. 40 [9’]

Liszt                 Fantasy and Fugue on the Chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, S259 [28’]

 

David Adams organ

 

Two aspects of the evening’s Main Season concert are amplified in this preceding Pipeworks event. Berg’s concerto and his teacher Schoenberg’s variations are twelve-tone works, both with a strong tonal undercurrent. Berg’s use of the chorale Es ist genug in the Concerto and Beethoven’s famous hymn of joy are mirrored in Liszt’s use of the revolutionary hymn Ad nos from Meyerbeer’s opera Le Prophète.

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 25 January 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Choral Masterworks

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

Berg                Violin Concerto [22’]

Beethoven       Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ‘Choral’ [65’]

 

Isabelle van Keulen violin

Katherine Broderick soprano

Claudia Huckle alto

Robin Tritschler tenor

Andrew Foster-Williams bass

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir (Mark Hindley chorus master)

Gerhard Markson conductor

 

A HEART-WRENCHING REQUIEM, A GARGANTUAN SYMPHONIC HYMN. Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto – a heart-wrenching requiem for the death of a young child, dedicated to ‘the memory of an angel’ – and Beethoven’s gargantuan symphonic hymn, with its ecstatic choral setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, are two monumental musical milestones whose astonishing intensity and awesome scale are without compare. Former Principal Conductor Gerhard Markson returns to lead virtuoso Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen, the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, and a quartet of vocal talents in what is sure to be a night to remember.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Former RTÉ NSO General Manager and Principal Clarinet Brian O’Rourke with conductor Gavin Maloney

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Tuesday 29 January 2013, 1.05pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Horizons 2013: Contemporary Music Series| FREE

Featured composer: Jonathan Nangle

 

Donald Sarsfield          Between Wood and Water for string orchestra and tape [10’]

Jonathan Nangle         New Work (world premiere) [10’]

Jonathan Nangle         Then falls thy Shadow for chamber ensemble and random

shuffle playback system [5’]

Jonathan Nangle         Now is night come quietly [8’]

 

Gavin Maloney conductor

 

‘DAPPLED SUNLIGHT CAST THROUGH SUMMER FOLIAGE and the complex, evolving interplay between light and shadow as the breeze ruffles the treetops, the squeak of an old chair, night rain, white harmony, flowing lines, a shuffling iPod and slow moving chords. A peal of bells derived from the light cast by the afternoon sun and the enveloping blackness as day turns gently into night.’

Jonathan Nangle

 

12 noon: Sound Installation

Jonathan Nangle         Trip the Light Fantastic

 

12.30pm: Composers in Conversation (In association with Contemporary Music Centre)

Contemporary Music Centre Director Evonne Ferguson with composer Jonathan Nangle

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Thursday 31 January, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Final of the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition

Patrik Ringborg conductor

 

FOLLOWING THREE PRELIMINARY ROUNDS, THE 7th VERONICA DUNNE INTERNATIONAL SINGING

COMPETITION FINAL will see six singers battle it out for the coveted title and first prize of €10,000.

With a prize fund in excess of €30,000 and over 12 different prizes, the Veronica Dunne International

Singing Competition has established itself as a competition attracting some of the most exciting

young voices emerging internationally.

 

Join us and give them your support as they perform a selection of operatic arias with the RTÉ NSO before a jury chaired by Jane Carty and including Christa Ludwig, Richard Bonynge and the Wexford Festival Opera Artistic Director David Agler.

 

Previous prizewinners include Pumeza Matshikiza, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Norah Amsellem, Tara Erraught, Simon O’Neill and Orla Boylan, now working in opera houses such as the Stuttgart Opera House; Bavarian State Opera, Munich; Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Vienna Staatsoper and the

Metropolitan Opera, New York

 

For more information: www.vdiscompetition.com

 

Tickets: €12, €20, €25 (concession €11, €18, €22)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

 

Friday 1 February, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

A Night at the Oscars

With the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

 

ALL-TIME ICONIC MOVIE SCORE FAVOURITES

 

‘A fabulous show’ ‘A wonderful night’ ‘Superb’ ‘We had a ball’ ‘Everyone loved hearing

their favourite movie themes played by an orchestra of this size’ ‘The RTÉ NSO made

an incredible sound’ ‘David Arnold’s arrangements were stunning’

 

JUST SOME OF THE LOVELY COMMENTS WE RECEIVED WHEN WE FIRST PRESENTED A NIGHT AT THE OSCARS IN 2011. NOW IT’S BACK, REMINDING US AGAIN WHY THERE REALLY IS NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.

 

Once again, the full forces of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra give the orchestral treatment to all-time iconic movie-score favourites, from the 1930s through to recent times. Old and new, funny and sad, animated classics, movie musicals, romantic comedies, dramas and Disney hits.

 

Everything from Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins to Cabaret, Chariots of Fire, Out of Africa, Doctor Zhivago and Bridge on the River Kwai.

 

David Arnold conductor

Presented by Shay Byrne RTÉ Radio 1

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Tuesday 5 February 2013, 1.05pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Horizons 2013: Contemporary Music Series| FREE

Featured composer: Raymond Deane

 

Carl Ruggles               Portals [7’]

Raymond Deane         Epitomes [8’]

Raymond Deane         Ripieno [30’]

 

Gavin Maloney conductor

 

‘COMPOSERS BYPASSED BY HISTORY DEPEND ON POSTERITY TO WAGE THEIR STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION. Carl Ruggles (1876–1971) was an uncompromising American pioneer who completed only 10 musical works in his long life. Portals for strings (1925) is typically intense and contrapuntal. My Epitomes, written for the Dublin Orchestras for Young Players, is 20 years old. An elegy for my father is framed by two almost minimalist miniatures. Ripieno (1999), by contrast, is my longest and most elaborate orchestral work to date.’ Raymond Deane

 

12.30pm: Composers in Conversation (In association with Contemporary Music Centre)

Contemporary Music Centre Director Evonne Ferguson with composer Raymond Deane

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 8 February 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

AFFAIRS OF THE HEART

Mahler                        Rückert Lieder [18’]

Mahler                        Symphony No. 10 (Cooke version) [72’]

 

Celine Byrne soprano

Stefan Blunier conductor

 

STRADDLING THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES, MAHLER’S MUSIC EXPLORED THE AFFAIRS OF THE

HEART WITH A PASSIONATE INTENSITY that takes the introspective and deeply felt to expansive and expressive ends. Shot through with dark emotions, sweet-scented melodies and sylvan beauty, the sublime Rückert Lieder are exquisitely inspired by the immediacy of nature and the intimacy of love. Moving from bleakest terror to luminous, transcendent peace, the

monumental Tenth Symphony was his mighty leave-taking of the world and surely one of the greatest love letters ever written.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ lyric fm’s Paul Herriott with Stefan Blunier

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Tuesday 12 February 2013, 1.05pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

Horizons 2013: Contemporary Music Series| FREE

Featured composer: Ann Cleare

 

Ann Cleare      phôsphors (world premiere) [13’]

Xenakis            Dämmerschein (Rays of Twilight) [12’]

Ann Cleare      to another of the other for bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone and orchestra (world premiere) [16’]

 

Elision Ensemble (Richard Haynes, Benjamin Marks, Tristram Williams)

Gavin Maloney conductor

 

‘The idea of light travelling through a space permeates this programme. In the colossal Dämmerschein (Rays of Twilight) by Xenakis, sounds are luminously sculpted and diffused throughout the orchestra, like beams of light flickering on a sky of rapidly transforming stars. phôsphors divides the orchestra into four insular islands that communicate by igniting matter into sonic colours, in an alchemical transfer of energy. to another of that other combines the orchestra with three soloists from the Australian ensemble ELISION, exploring an angular geometry of a bass clarinet, trumpet and trombone as they modulate identities in the orchestral landscape.’

Ann Cleare

 

12.30pm: Composers in Conversation (In association with Contemporary Music Centre)

Contemporary Music Centre Director Evonne Ferguson with composer Ann Cleare

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 15 February 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series | Prokofiev Symphony Cycle

JOURNEYS OF THE IMAGINATION

Grieg               Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55 [15’]

Saint-Saëns      Piano Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. 103 ‘Egyptian’ [29’]

Prokofiev         Symphony No. 4 in C, Op. 47 (original version) [23’]

Grieg               Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 [15’]

 

Lilya Zilberstein piano

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

TAKEN FROM HIS MUSIC FOR IBSEN’S PEER GYNT, the story of a boastful and vain outlaw who

finds love in old age, Grieg’s Suites boast some of the most atmospheric and beautiful music ever written, from the sublime ‘Morning’ and haunting ‘Solveig’s Song’ to the fiery ‘Arabian Dance’ and vivid depiction of grotesque mountain trolls and gnomes. No less exotic is Saint-Saens’ ‘Egyptian’ Concerto, a magical voyage full of Middle Eastern scents with brilliantly descriptive piano writing for virtuoso Lilya Zilberstein. Finally Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony provides drama and emotion aplenty in rich and relishable music.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

TCD Head of Music Simon Trezise on Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 22 February 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series

LANDMARKS OF EMOTION

Dvořák             Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 [40’]

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 [39’]

 

Alban Gerhardt cello

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

TWO MESMERIC LANDMARKS OF THE ORCHESTRAL REPERTOIRE ELOQUENTLY ILLUSTRATE THE

ENORMOUS VARIETY AND VITALITY OF THE FORM. Dvořák’s glorious late-19th-century Concerto is a haunting blend of American-Negro folk tunes and thrilling, heart-on-sleeve writing for the cello (played by the remarkable, always unmissable, Alban Gerhardt). Completed in 1936, Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony is a work of large emotions underpinned by the brittle poignancy of plain-chant and expressed in music that moves from brooding melancholia to searing lyricism to thrilling defiance with irresistible energy.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ NSO Principal Cello Martin Johnson with Alban Gerhardt on popular cello concerti

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Sunday 24 February 2013, 3.30pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season


Associate Artist Series | Beethoven Piano Concerti Cycle


BEETHOVEN FOR MOZART LOVERS

Beethoven       Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, Op. 15 [36’]

Beethoven       Piano Concerto No. 6 in D, Op. 61 [42’]

 

Finghin Collins piano

Jonathan Cohen conductor

 

BEETHOVEN’S FIRST AND LAST PIANO CONCERTOS OWE A GENEROUS DEBT TO THE RADIANT BRILLIANCE OF MOZART. The First is an infectious display of youthful playfulness and swagger that pits soloist against orchestra in an entertaining game of cat and mouse. No less delightful is the Sixth Concerto (Beethoven’s own transcription of his Violin Concerto). After last season’s revelatory beginning to his complete survey of Beethoven’s piano concertos, Associate Artist Finghin Collins nears the end of the cycle in scintillating fashion. Les Arts Florissants Associate Conductor Jonathan Cohen is one to look forward to.

 

Post-concert talk with the performers in the John Field Room

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Sunday 3 March 2013, 3.30pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Associate Artist Series | Beethoven Piano Concerti Cycle | Choral Masterworks

 

ORPHEUS TAMING THE WILD BEASTS

Beethoven       Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 [8’]

Beethoven       Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58 [34’]

Beethoven       Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 [19’]

 

Finghin Collins piano

Jennifer Davis soprano

Nicola Mulligan soprano

Laura Murphy alto

Eoin Hynes tenor

Patrick Hyland bass

Gavan Ring baritone

The Guinness Choir (David Milne chorus master)

Jonathan Cohen conductor

 

ASSOCIATE ARTIST FINGHIN COLLINS’ FINAL BEETHOVEN PROGRAMME features the exhilarating ingenuity and captivating melodic invention of the Fourth Piano Concerto, whose voluptuous second movement Liszt memorably described as ‘Orpheus taming the wild beasts’. The majestic Coriolan Overture offers up a clenched fist of emotion and high drama, and The Guinness Choir and a sextet of soloists join us for the sublime Choral Fantasy, where piano, voice and orchestra combine with muscularity and musicality.

 

Post-concert talk with the performers in the John Field Room

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 8 March 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series |Prokofiev Symphony Cycle

 

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Tchaikovsky     Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 [22’]

Khachaturian   Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra [23’]

Prokofiev         Symphony No. 5 in B flat, Op. 100 [46’]

 

Hideko Udagawa violin

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

PASSIONS, PLEASURABLE AND PAINFUL, RUN HIGH IN THREE MAJESTIC WORKS THAT SPRING

FROM THE RUSSIAN SOIL AND SOUL. Drawn from Dante’s Inferno, Tchaikovsky’s searingly tragic Francesca da Rimini tells of murdered lovers locked in poignant embrace for all eternity. Prokofiev described his mighty and moving Fifth Symphony as ‘a song of praise of free and happy mankind’, its soaring drama conjuring the moment of victory in World War II. Hideko Udagawa is sure to delight with Khachaturian’s richly characterised love song for violin and orchestra, the Concerto-Rhapsody.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

TCD Head of Music Simon Trezise on the evening’s programme

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Friday 22 March 2013, 6.10pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The National Concert Hall present

PIPEWORKS

 

Hindemith                               Sonata No. 1 [17’]

Mozart            (arr. Best/Carey)        Larghetto (from Clarinet Quintet, Op. 108) [6’]

Mendelssohn                           Sonata No. 4 in B flat, Op. 65 [14’]

 

Colm Carey organ

 

This evening’s programme explores the organ’s interaction with classical form and style, as experienced in the linear counterpoint of Hindemith, the poised elegance of Mozart transcribed, or Mendelssohn’s homage to Baroque models in reimagining the sonata as a suite of contrasted movements.

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 22 March 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Soloist Directs Series

CLASSICAL POISE

Mozart                        The Marriage of Figaro Overture, K492 [4’]

Mozart                        Symphony No. 29 in A [28’]

Mendelssohn   Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 [26]

Mendelssohn   Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90 ‘Italian’ [27]

 

Julian Rachlin violin/conductor

 

CHARISMATIC VIRTUOSO JULIAN RACHLIN MAKES A WELCOME RETURN AS BOTH SOLOIST AND CONDUCTOR FOR ARGUABLY THE GREATEST OF ALL VIOLIN CONCERTOS. Mendelssohn’s masterpiece is a passionate helter-skelter ride laced together by heart-stopping melodies and thrilling orchestral writing, while his Fourth Symphony is a colourful snapshot of travels in Italy that calls to mind his nickname as ‘the Mozart of the 19th century’. Offering scintillating proof of the comparison is Mozart’s own brilliant and energetic Symphony No. 29 and the magnificent Overture to The Marriage of Figaro.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

RTÉ NSO Co-Leader Elaine Clark with Julian Rachlin

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)
Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Friday 12 April 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

SYMPHONIC MATTERS

John Kinsella   Symphony No. 10 [30’]

Bruckner         Symphony No. 4 in E flat, ‘Romantic’ [70’]

 

Gavin Maloney conductor

 

A SECOND CHANCE FOR IRISH AUDIENCES TO HEAR JOHN KINSELLA’S TENTH SYMPHONY, DESCRIBED BY THE COMPOSER AS ‘VERY MUCH AN EXPRESSION OF MYSELF’. First heard in 2012 just weeks before Kinsella’s 80th birthday, it was hailed by The Irish Times for its ‘spare linear style, moments of fierce, trumpet-topped intensity’ and a finale that ‘moves with foot-tapping clarity’. Bruckner’s expansive ‘Romantic’ Symphony is a magnificent exercise in recreating the medieval countryside of his native Austria, complete with vivid hunting scenes, evocative birdsong, pastoral colour and an altogether blazing climax.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Conductor Gavin Maloney with composer John Kinsella on his symphonies

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 19 April 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

A POSTCARD FROM THE NEW WORLD AND THE OLD

Lalo     Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21 [33’]

Dvořak Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ‘From the New World’ [40’]

 

Eldbjørg Hemsing violin

Gilbert Varga conductor

 

JOIN ACCLAIMED CONDUCTOR GILBERT VARGA FOR A MUSICAL JOURNEY between the Old World of Europe – in Lalo’s rhapsodic celebration of Spanish folk songs – and the New World of America in Dvořak’s stirring Ninth Symphony, with its unforgettably stirring blend of Native American and African- American melodies and tunes from his native Bohemia. Heard in countless television adverts and films, it remains a work of epic dimensions, with music that is gloriously fresh, vital, and alive to the ear. Sensational young Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing is our soloist.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

The Irish Times music critic Michael Dervan with Gilbert Varga

 

Late Night, 9.45pm (30 minutes)

Norwegian folk music and more with Eldbjørg Hemsing

violin/Hardanger fiddle

 

Tickets:

8pm concert: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Late Night concert: €5 (unreserved seating) |  Free if attending that evening’s 8pm concert

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 26 April 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

The French Connection | Choral Masterworks

 

HEAT, HOLINESS AND LEFT-HAND PIANO

Messiaen         L’Ascension – 4 méditations symphoniques [27’]

Ravel               Piano Concerto for the Left Hand [19’]

Ibert                Escales (Ports of Call) [14’]

 

Jean-Frédéric Neuburger piano

Pascal Rophé conductor

 

FRENCH MUSIC SPECIALIST PASCAL ROPHÉ CONDUCTS A COLOURFUL PROGRAMME OF MUSIC FROM HIS HOMELAND with Messiaen’s moving, devout and joyous setting of Catholic liturgy and Biblical texts, L’Ascension, Ravel’s effervescent Piano Concerto for the Left Hand – featuring Jean-Frederic Neuburger at the piano – looks west towards America to dazzlingly embrace the improvisatory brilliance of jazz. Ibert’s magical ‘Ports of Call’, meanwhile, revels in the captivating colour and exotic heat of Italian, Spanish and Arabic influences on a musical tour around the Mediterranean.

 

Soundings, 7pm

In Conversation

Eugene Downes with Pascal Rophé

 

Late Night, 9.45pm (30 minutes)

Messiaen L’Ascension for solo organ [27’]

with Mark Duley organ

 

Tickets:
8pm concert: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Late Night concert: €5 (unreserved seating) | Free if attending that evening’s 8pm concert

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 3 May 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

The French Connection | Choral Masterworks

 

GLORY TO GOD AND RUGBY

Franck             Symphony in D minor [37’]

Honegger        Rugby [8’]

Poulenc                       Gloria [28’]

 

Mairéad Buicke soprano

RTÉ Philharmonic Choir (Mark Hindley chorus master)

Pascal Rophé conductor

 

WITH ITS COMPELLING BLEND OF FRENCH AND GERMAN INFLUENCES, FRANCK’S ONLY SYMPHONY contributed to a revival of the form in his native France in the late 19th century. And no wonder: it brims over with drama, emotion and rich, ripe melodies that catch the ear and the imagination. Pascal Rophé returns to conduct it, together with Honegger’s spirited Rugby, which offers all the thrills and spills of a game in full flow, and Poulenc’s celebratory, gloriously ebullient and joyous Gloria, with the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and Limerick-born soprano Mairéad Buicke.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

Organist Mark Duley on Franck’s Symphony and legacy for organists

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 10 May 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Associate Artist Series | Soloist Directs Series | Mozart Piano Concerti Cycle

 

BEAUTY IN SUNSHINE AND SHADOW

Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 5 in D, K175 [21’]

Mozart                        Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K595 [32’]

Mozart                        Concerto for Three Pianos in F, K242

 

THREE OF IRELAND’S FINEST PIANISTS COME TOGETHER FOR A NIGHT OF PHENOMENAL MUSIC MAKING as Dearbhla Collins and Hugh Tinney join Associate Artist Finghin Collins for the bracing conclusion to his Mozart piano concerto cycle. The Concerto in F for Three Pianos is an affectionate portrait of the composer’s patron and her two daughters, complete with a delightfully witty surprise ending. The early, buoyant Fifth Concerto (composed by a 17-year-old Mozart), and the very last – the introspective, valedictory 27th – reveal beauty cast in both sunshine and shadow.

 

Finghin Collins piano/director

Dearbhla Collins piano

Hugh Tinney piano

 

Soundings, 7pm

In conversation

RTÉ Performing Groups Executive Director Séamus Crimmins with Finghin Collins on the scale of his 2010­­-2013 Mozart Piano Concerti Cycle

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 17 May 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series

 

ROMANCE TAKEN TO EXTREMES

Wagner                       The Flying Dutchman Overture [11’]

Bruch               Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 [24’]

Brahms                        Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90 [33’]

 

Edoardo Zosi violin

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

BRUCH’S FIRST VIOLIN CONCERTO IS SELDOM ABSENT FROM ‘TOP 10’ LISTS FOR GOOD REASON. It’s a sublime concoction of sweet, soaring violin melodies and red-blooded orchestral writing – a perfect combination for the young Italian virtuoso Edoardo Zosi and Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev in his third season with the RTÉ  NSO. From its storm-tossed beginning and stately themes to its soaring conclusion, the Overture to Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman provides romantic drama in abundance, while the Third Symphony by Brahms is a bold and brilliant work of pulsing and powerful emotions.

 

Soundings, 7pm

Guest Talk

UCD Head of Music Julian Horton on the evening’s Germanic repertoire

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

Friday 24 May 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Guest Conductor Series | Choral Masterworks

 

FANTASY FOLK MUSIC AND PURE COLD WATER

Sibelius                        Tapiola, Op. 112 [18’]

Sibelius                        Kullervo, Op. 7 [72’]

 

Johanna Rusanen-Kartano soprano

Ville Rusanen baritone

The Polytech Choir of Finland (Juha Kuivanen director)

Hannu Lintu conductor

 

SINGING SIBLINGS JOHANNA RUSANEN-KARTANO AND VILLE RUSANEN JOIN FORCES WITH FELLOW FINNS THE POLYTECH CHOIR AND PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR HANNU LINTU, ‘a dynamic figure on the rostrum’(Irish Independent). Making extensive use of Finnish folk tunes, Kullervo and Tapiola revel in all the romantic verve and dramatic impact of a modern film soundtrack. Sibelius pours what he called ‘the pure cold water’ of his music to bewitching effect: Kullervo churning and boiling with mysterious incantations; Tapiola, the composer’s last major work, a powerful evocation of mythic landscapes.

 

Supported by the Embassy of Finland

 

Early Evening, 7pm

The Polytech Choir of Finland

 

Tickets:

7pm: Free ticketed event
8pm concert: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 31 May 2013, 6.10pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The National Concert Hall present

PIPEWORKS

 

J.S. Bach          Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548 [16’]

Hampton         Everyone Dance! from Five Dances for Organ [4’]

Bridge             Adagio in E [7’]

Franck             Pièce Héroïque [8’]

 

Mark Duley organ

 

This programme follows the general emotive outline of the four movements of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, highlighting in particular the terse counterpoint and melodic profiles of the first, the satirical dance of the second, the elegiac intensity of the third, and the bombast of the fourth.

 

Tickets: FREE TICKETED EVENT

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Friday 31 May 2013, 8pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season: Main Season

 

Principal Conductor Series

 

A FINALE OF FANFAES AND FIREWORKS

Tchaikovksy     Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 [32’]

Shostakovich   Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op.47 [44’]

 

Kirill Gerstein piano

Alan Buribayev conductor

 

TWO OF THE MOST POPULAR AND EXCITING WORKS IN THE REPERTOIRE BRING OUR SEASON TO A GLORIOUS END. With its big, bold, heart-on-sleeve melodies, Tchaikovsky’s tempestuous tug of war between orchestra and soloist offers pianist Kirill Gerstein opportunities aplenty for displays of firework virtuosity. No less powerful is Shostakovich’s mighty Fifth Symphony, a dramatic 20th-century masterpiece brimming over with one memorable melody after another that gets close to boiling point with its bold intensity and striking contrasts.

 

Soundings 7pm

In conversation

Journalist Ian Fox on the final concert of the season

 

Tickets: €10, €18, €24, €30, €35 (concessions €9, €16, €22, €27, €32)

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

Sunday 2 June 2013, 3pm, National Concert Hall

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012-2013 Season:  Beyond the Season

 

Presented as part of FORTE! The RTÉ NSO’s Musical Discovery Programme

 

GLOBAL EXPRESS: A FAMILY CONCERT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

Concert with on-screen presentation and audience participation

 

R. Strauss                                            Introduction (Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30) [2’]

Copland                                               Hoe down (Rodeo) [3’30]

Bizet                                                    Habanera (Carmen Suite No. 2) [2’]

Bizet                                                   Les Toréadors (Carmen Suite No. 1) [2’]

Anderson                                            The Irish Washerwoman (Irish Suite) [3’]

Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel)                   Pictures at an Exhibition (excerpts) [15’]

Paul Rissmann                                    The Meerkat Tango [4’]

Zimmer (arr. Lavender & Longfield)  Pirates of the Caribbean (highlights) [3’]

 

Presented by Paul Rissmann

James Cavanagh conductor

 

MUSIC TO ENGAGE, EXCITE AND ENTERTAIN THE WHOLE FAMILY! Prepare to be transported into space by Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra and back down-to-earth again (the Wild West, to be exact) to become a cowboy in Copland’s Rodeo, a bullfighter in Bizet’s Carmen, a Pirate of the Caribbean in music from the film, before losing yourself in Mussorgsky’s magical and mysterious Pictures at an Exhibition. You’ll even get an opportunity to sing along with the audience as the orchestra performs the curiously named Meerkat Tango written by our presenter Paul Rissmann.

 

Duration: 1 hour

Tickets: Child €10 | Adult €15 | Family of 4 (to include 1 adult) €40

Booking (no fees): 01 417 0000 | www.nch.ie | www.rte.ie/nso

 

 

June 2013, 8pm, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2012–2013 Season: Beyond the Season

 

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra presents

The Three Sopranos Summer Gala on Tour

In association with The John Murray Show, RTÉ Radio 1

 

Orchestral and operatic favourites

 

Celine Byrne soprano

Regina Nathan soprano

Cara O’Sullivan soprano

John Finucane conductor

 

Leisureland GALWAY

University Concert Hall LIMERICK

City Hall CORK

WIT Campus WATERFORD

 

For more information see www.rte.ie/nso (from September 2012)