As the main work in tomorrow’s NSO concert at the NCH will be Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony I had intended this column to be principally devoted to the Russian master. However, taking pen to paper I realised that tomorrow’s opening work is by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana born 1824, died in 1884 with this year…
Over the past number of years the National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have focussed their Holy Week concert on religious themes. This event normally takes place on Good Friday afternoon not, in my view, the ideal time as it clashes with the sacred liturgy in many churches and there are those who would like to…
Thanks to its intrepid artistic director, Fergus Sheil, Irish National Opera is currently midway through its latest production – Richard Strauss’ single act Salome at Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. A concert performance in Wexford’s National Opera House on March 3 preceded the fully staged production by Bruno Ravella that opened at BGET last Tuesday.…
Two recent performances at the NCH gave me considerable satisfaction. The first, with the NSO conducted by Dubliner Killian Farrell, currently general music director of the state theatre in Meiningen, had Finghin Collins as the brilliant interpreter of Stanford’s 2nd Piano Concerto – a piece demanding verve and virtuosity supplied with breathtaking dash by Mr…
I recently mentioned 2024 as a year for remembering the centenary of a number of composers’ births or deaths. One such is Charles Villiers Stanford who was born in Dublin’s Herbert Street on September 30, 1852 and died in London on 29 March, 1924. Ideals of Brahms Stanford’s music is akin to the romantic ideals…
This year celebrates a number of composer centenaries, among them the anniversary of the death of Dublin-born Charles Villiers Stanford, who played an important role in music education in the UK where he was professor at Cambridge and a founder of London’s Royal College of Music. The NSO remembers him at the NCH tomorrow (February…
The current year celebrates a number of musical centenaries not least those of the deaths of France’s Gabriel Fauré and Dublin-born Charles Villiers Stanford who became a particularly potent figure in the musical life of the UK where he was professor of music at Cambridge from 1887 until his death. Now maybe best remembered for…
With his death on November 17, the long life of the doyen of our composers – Seóirse Bodley – came to an end. May he rest in peace. Born in Dublin on April 4, 1933, Seóirse Bodley attended the CBS Coláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square where the curriculum was taught through Irish. Bodley also studied…
Despite having already written about the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition I am not making any excuses for continuing to spotlight young artists. This time I am drawing attention to the 2023 Top Security ‘Frank Maher Classical Music Awards’ held recently in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin’s Kildare Street. The…
The Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition took place last month at the Society’s head quarters in Dublin’s Molesworth Street, but the competition actually began life in RTÉ’s Music Department where it had been the brainchild of the late Jane Carty and was known as Musician of the Future.