Irish National Opera (INO) returns to An Bord Gais Energy Theatre for four performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman on March 23, 25, 27 and 29. As it has been a while since any of the composer’s operas have been seen here these performances by INO are welcome. The Flying Dutchman is the earliest of…
One of the Czech Republic’s leading ensembles – the Prague Symphony Orchestra – was founded in 1934. The band made its first Irish appearance at the NCH earlier this month in a programme that, not surprisingly, made the music of Antonín Dvořák its main feature under the baton of principal conductor Tomáš Brauner. The evening…
The 11th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition took place at the National Concert Hall at the end of last month following auditions held in several European centres as well as in New York. The triennial competition, set up by the redoubtable Ronnie, who died in 2021 and to whom there was a repeated and fitting…
Following a number of seasonal events, the NSO came back on track with its 2024/25 series at the National Concert Hall in a Russian programme featuring South American conductor Diego Matheuz and French pianist Lise de la Salle. With Rakhmaninov’s ever popular 2nd Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony (Leningrad), I found the relationship between…
The New Year 2025 and the following 2026 bring anniversaries appropriate to Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich who was born in St Petersburg in 1906 and died in Moscow in 1975. Commemorating these events two of his 15 symphonies have been slotted into the NCH January programmes. His 10th of 1953 had the National Youth Orchestra on…
I am grateful to Finghin Collins for keeping me up to date about the next Dublin International Piano Competition taking place from May 9 to 16 2025. The Irish preliminary rounds are scheduled for Friday December 20 at the RIAM’s Whyte Recital Hall beginning at 09.15am and concluding at approximately 5.30pm with the results expected around 6pm. Twelve competitors – Adam…
I’m always glad to give some recognition to our young musicians whether or not they are planning to make the art the basis of their careers. With the spotlight shining on them at this time of the year, Barbara Elliott of Touchstone Communications tells me that the 2024 Top Security/Frank Maher Classical Music Award –…
A recent event at the National Concert Hall commemorated the centenary of the death in 1924 of Giacomo Puccini through his Messa di Gloria. An early work, the piece still has considerable merit to its credit. However, I felt the respectable performance under visiting conductor Carlo Rizzi with tenor and bass soloists – Gwyn Hughes…
October and eyes and ears turn to Wexford where the town’s seventy-third Opera Festival runs from October 18 until November 2. Now, one might be forgiven in thinking the most often performed composers in Wexford might be either Verdi or Puccini but, in fact, the honours fall on Gaetano Donizetti. Born in Bergamo in 1797,…
In welcoming the audience to the opening of the 2024/25 season at the National Concert Hall, Chairperson Maura McGrath and CEO Robert Read pointed out that the season would be “one of the most ambitious to date comprising more than sixty concerts and other events, showcasing some of the world’s most exciting and dynamic musicians…