National Symphony Orchestra Chri stma s Gala
PETER AND THE WOLF & THE YOUNG PERSON’S
GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA
National Symphony Orchestra
Jessie Grimes presenter | Maeve Clancy shadow puppetry Neasa Ní Chuanaigh shadow puppetry | Gavin Maloney conductor A magical fusion of sight and sound for all ages. Storytelling, puppetry and orchestral brilliance.
SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2025, 12.30pm, 3pm, 5pm
David B ro phy co n d u cto r | Cla ud ia B oyle s op ra no
Cór Linn | Ciará n Kelly c ho ra l d recto r
Wed ne s d a y 18 & T hu r s d a y 19 Dece m be r 20 24 , 7.3 0 p m Nat iona l Concer t Ha ll
Fr i d a y 2 0 Dece m b e r 20 24 , 7 3 0 p m Nat iona l O pera House, Wexford
I n a s s oc iation with the Nationa l O pera Hou s e
Programme
G linka Ru s la n a nd Lyud m i la Ove r t u re
Thoma s ‘O u i! pou r ce s o i r… Je s u i s T ita n i a’ (M ig non)
Korng old orch. Zem linsky Ent r ’ a cte f ro m D er S c h neema n n
Bach ‘S leepers Awake’ from Cantata No. 14 0, BW V 14 0
Tcha ikovsky
Wa lt z of t h e Fl owe r s (The N utc ra cker )
Verd i ‘È strano! Ah, fors’è lui sempre libera’ (La traviata)
R imsky-Korsakov
Pol o na i s e f ro m Ch ri stma s Eve S u ite
Leroy And erson A Ch ri stma s Fe stiva l
Caccini
Ave Ma ria
M orley S now R id e
Harline/ Washington arr. Cian Boylan When You Wi s h U pon a S ta r
Gru ber/M ohr arr Ciarán Kelly S i lent N ig ht
Trad. arr. Doug la s Ga m ley The Twelve Days of Ch ri stma s
Wat ts arr. Wil berg Joy to the World
Leroy And erson S leig h R id e
Ad a m arr. Gavin M urphy O Holy N ig ht
CE O Rob e r t Re a d Pat r on M c h a e l D. H ig g n s Pre s d e nt of I rel a n d
NC H Boa r d M em ber s
M a u ra M c G ra t h Cha i r | Ja m e s Ca va n a g h | Cl i o n a Do r i s
Re b e cca Ga g e by | H a r y H o u g h | Pete r M cKe n n a
N a m h M u r ra y | M i ch e l l e O’S ull va n | Do n T h o r n h il l
A festive welcome
You are very welcome to the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and to the National Opera House in Wexford.
I have almost grown up at the National Concert Hall. It’s like a second home and a beating heart of culture in Dublin. As is the National Opera House to Wexford.
I remember with great fondness attending my first concerts at the National Concert Hall as a young child. Entranced by the beautiful music, fascinated by the performers and breathlessly bewitched by the sheer scale and spectacle of a symphony orchestra breathing life into music and creating magic! And that’s exactly the feeling I want to capture and share once again this Christmas, because that’s what it’s all about. Family, love, joy…. And a bit of magic.
Performing with the National Symphony Orchestra is always a delight and a privilege. As an artist it doesn’t get much better, and the feeling when stepping out onto the concert hall stage never gets old.
With David Brophy at the helm inspiring and igniting, and the crystalline Cór Linn serenading with heavenly sounds, this Christmas Gala will enchant everyone. We have carefully curated a sparkling repertoire of classical favourites, operatic gems and festive treats to balance our perfect seasonal recipe.
What I’m looking forward to most in the concert is sharing the gift of music with the loyal and discerning audiences of the National Concert Hall and National Opera House. More than ever, we need to collect memories, not things, and the gift of music this Christmas will enchant, excite and endure.
Merry Christmas!
Claudia Boyle
Programme Notes
Mihail Glinka (1804-57)
Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture
The success of Glinka’s first opera, A Life for the Tsar, transformed the fortunes and future of opera in his native Russia and spurred him to quickly begin work on Ruslan and Lyudmila.
As with his debut, Ruslan was composed without a libretto, Glinka’s hoped-for collaboration with Pushkin thwarted by the poet’s death in a duel in early 1837. It received its first performance on the sixth anniversary of the premiere of A Life for the Tsar in St Petersburg in November 1842. If the date was auspicious, the occasion was not, Glinka’s intricately conceived, gloriously effusive score mangled by an interfering collaborator and superseded by a shift in popular taste towards Italian opera.
But the colour-saturated Overture splendidly illustrates why Tchaikovsky would later hail Ruslan as ‘the Tsar of operas’. It begins at breakneck speed with a spirited cascade of strings and never lets up. What follows is rich, romantic orchestration accented by exotic tones perfectly in keeping with its fairy-tale origins, and a breathless but brilliant rush towards a conclusion triumphant with blazing brass and muscular percussion.
Ambroise Thomas (1811-96)
‘Oui! pour ce soir… Je suis Titania’ (Mignon)
Mignon was an immediate success at its 1866 premiere. Mentioned in ‘The Dead’, the concluding story in James Joyce’s Dubliners, it is a highly sentimentalised version of Goethe’s second novel, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, detailing a love triangle between the eponymous Mignon, abducted as a child by gypsies, the student who rescues her, and the actress who desires him.
The agonising ménage à trois at its heart produced one of opera’s most effusive arias. The curtain having just come down on a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the actress Philine – embroiled in a contest with Mignon for the love of the student, Wilhelm – revels in the acclaim of the audience for her performance as the fairy queen Titania.
In ‘Oui! pour ce soir… Je suis Titania’ (‘Yes, for tonight… I am Titania’) she proclaims to an adoring audience her identification with the mythic ‘daughter of air’, the music matching her excitement and exhilaration in an extended polonaise that seems to magically froth and fizz with one combustible coloratura passage after another.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Entr’acte from Der Schneemann orch. Alexander von Zemlinsky
Hailed by Mahler ‘a genius, a genius!’ at the age of nine, Erich Wolfgang Korngold was part of that unfortunate generation of European composers who fled Nazi persecution to safety in the United States in the 1930s. There, he proved a natural for Hollywood to become a defining figure in a golden age of film music.
Composed for piano duet in 1908 – when he was just 11 – Korngold’s balletpantomime Der Schneemann (The Snowman) caused a sensation when Alexander Zemlinsky’s orchestration was premiered in 1910. Based on a commedia dell’arte scenario by Korngold’s father, it drew from the prodigious young composer, as the luscious Entr’acte richly reveals, a late-Romantic score brimming with melody, colour and incident.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
‘Sleepers Awake’ from Cantata No. 140, BWV 140
Such was his phenomenal output that Bach often borrowed existing melodies for his own compositions. Dating from 1731, his Cantata No. 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, calls the voice to us) made liberal use of a tune and text by the Lutheran pastor and poet Philipp Nicolai.
Alluding to the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Bach would use the cantata’s central movement, a stately, slow processional more familiarly known as Sleepers Awake, again in the first of his Schübler Chorales a decade and more later. In its own gently sedate way, it’s as rousing a declaration of faith as any the devout composer wrote.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93)
Waltz of the Flowers (The Nutcracker)
Set on Christmas Eve as a child sits at the foot of a candle-lit tree and allows her imagination to wander, Tchaikovsky’s third and final ballet The Nutcracker is a magical re-telling of ETA Hoffmann’s fantasy about the young girl’s dolls coming to life. All but forgotten after its premiere in St Petersburg in 1892, it returned to the repertoire of dance companies as recently as the 1960s, the composer’s own orchestral suite maintaining its profile in concert halls in the intervening years. Boasting one glorious tune after another, it features a glistening array of exotic dances from Russia and China, including the sublime, graceful lyricism of the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ with its glistening harp, piping woodwinds, golden horns and sweeping strings.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
‘È strano!… Ah, fors’è lui… sempre libera’ (La traviata)
In a happier moment, at the beginning of their romance, Violetta dwells on thoughts of Alfredo, the attentive young man who declared his love for her at the ball given to celebrate her recovery from recent illness.
Left alone after her would-be suitor and guests have departed, in ‘È strano!…
Sempre libera’ (‘How strange… Always Free’) she begins to consider whether he might be ‘the one’. Fearful of committing to him, she concludes by declaring that she would rather be a free spirit and live only for her own pleasure, even as Alfredo’s imploring voice rings out from the street below. One of Verdi’s greatest arias, it eulogises the mystery of love and celebrates its intensity with ravishingly orchestrated music and a dazzling coloratura display of ecstasy unlike any other.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Polonaise from Christmas Eve Suite
You can’t get more seasonal than Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve, albeit it’s an opera with more than a hint of Halloween about it. The tale of a young villager challenged with an impossible task to win the hand of his beloved though thwarted by the Devil himself, its eventual happy ending begins with the celebrated Polonaise. Drawing on a popular Polish folk dance and glossed by becoming formality, it is shot through with fairy-tale playfulness and a swirling, demonic energy.
INTERVAL
Leroy Anderson (1908-75)
A Christmas Festival
Tidings of comfort and joy aplenty are to be found in Leroy Anderson’s delightful blending of seasonal favourites into a festive concert overture in all but name. A Christmas Festival was composed in 1950 for the Boston Pops Orchestra and intended to fit neatly onto the two sides of a 45rpm single release conducted by Arthur Fielder. From the opening fanfare of Joy to the World to the ringing excitement of Jingle Bells, it is a work of irresistible colour and high spirits.
Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
Ave Maria
Bridging the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, the Florentine Giulio Caccini was instrumental in forging the early signatures of both the new musical era and of nascent opera. There are those who contest Caccini’s authorship of this beguilingly simple, bewitchingly beautiful setting of the oft-set Latin prayer, Ave Maria. That it was unknown until the 1970s has led many to ascribe it to the minor Russian guitarist and composer Vladimir Vavilov, who recorded it in 1972 claiming it was an anonymous song. Whoever its ownership belongs to doesn’t detract from its ethereal, gossamer-delicate loveliness.
Angela Morley (1924-2009)
Snow Ride
Angela Morley’s music was a mainstay of British radio in the 1950s – notably the theme tune for Hancock’s Half Hour – and beyond. Recipient of two Oscar nominations, she also wrote award-nominated music for television classics Dallas and Dynasty. Originally composed in the 1960s as ‘library music’, Snow Ride is a bright and colourful fantasia on seasonal diversions, a delightfully brisk and characterful canter through a snow-capped landscape accompanied by the festive jingle of sleigh bells.
Leigh Harline (1907-69) / Ned Washington (1901-76)
When You Wish Upon a Star arr. Cian Boylan
Disney’s second animated film, 1940’s Pinocchio, about a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy, set the seal on the template created by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So much so that its standout song, the Oscar-winning When You Wish Upon a Star, became the behemoth studio’s signature theme across its films, theme parks and holiday cruise lines.
The fantastical story prompted from composer Leigh Harline and lyricist Ned Washington a gloriously sentimental ballad, laced with a magical melody and sweetly yearning lyrics that perfectly chimes with the wonder and promise of Christmas.
Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863) / Joseph Mohr (1792-1848)
Silent Night arr. Ciarán Kelly
With lyrics by the 26-year-old priest Joseph Mohr and music by teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber, Mohr’s elder by five years, Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve, 1818. Since then it has become the most beloved of all Christmas songs. Contrasting the most domestic of scenes – the birth of a child – with the mystery and majesty at the heart of the infant Christ’s deity, it is both a moving affirmation of faith and an intimate hymnal to seasonal themes of love and redemption.
Traditional
The Twelve Days of Christmas arr. Douglas Gamley
If gift-giving is at the centre of Christmas, then the traditional English carol The Twelve Days of Christmas takes generosity to extremes guaranteed to leave the bountiful giver with a hefty credit card bill long after seasonal festivities have ended. The now familiar melody and lyrics were written by Frederic Austin in 1909.
A cumulative song in which each verse adds to and then repeats what has gone before, it amounts to an increasingly lavish compendium of gifts, from the sole partridge in a pear tree on Christmas Day itself, to a virtual aviary of birds, a veritable household of maids, lords, ladies, pipers and drummers, and a treasure trove of gold rings by the time the twelfth day, January 6, the eve of the Epiphany is reached. Spare a thought for the overwhelmed recipient: imagine the noise and the feeding bill for such largesse!
Lowell Mason (1792-1872) / Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Joy to the World arr. Mack Wilberg
Based on Psalm 98’s rhapsodising of God as the king of mankind, Joy to the World was written by Isaac Watts in 1719. Lowell Mason (the prolific American composer of 1600 hymns including Nearer, My God, To Thee) added music in 1839, but its now familiar tune was once believed to have been composed by Handel – whose Messiah quotes it three times although the melody pre-dates it. Its effusive, celebratory promise of ‘sounding joy’ and ‘truth and grace’ energetically encapsulates the Christian message of Christmas.
Leroy Anderson (1908-75)
Sleigh Ride
A Californian summer heat wave in 1946 prompted Leroy Anderson to write his irresistibly jingle-jangling Sleigh Ride. Although now adopted as a fun festive anthem, the lyrics added by Mitchell Parish in 1950 never actually mention Christmas. Such bah-humbug pedantry can’t detract from the jollity of Anderson’s thrilling, snow-coated miniature with its sleigh bell accompaniment, rocking rhythms, knocking hoof beats and whip-cracking excitement.
Adolphe Adam (1803-56)
O Holy Night arr. Gavin Murphy
O Holy Night has the distinction of being the second piece of music heard on radio when it was broadcast live in Canada in 1906. Composed in 1847 to a text from Placide Cappeau’s poem Minuit, chrétiens (Midnight, Christians) it immediately became a seasonal favourite. Its focus on the birth of Jesus drew from Adam music of majesty and operatic intensity wholly suitable to the magnitude of the moment it describes. In this sweet but sumptuous arrangement, it becomes a sincere and soaring declaration of faith and hope.
Notes by Michael Quinn © National Concert Hall
10 JANUARY 2025
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL , DUBLIN
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | STEFAN GEIGER conductor
David Brophy conductor
Dublin-born David Brophy is a graduate of Technological University and Trinity College. Appointed Apprentice Conductor with Chamber Choir Ireland, he became the National Symphony Orchestra’s first Assistant Conductor. Former Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, he guest conducts with the Ulster Orchestra, and throughout Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
David’s collaborations with renowned soloists include Natalie Clein, Tasmin Little, Barry Douglas, Willard White, James Galway, Lang Lang, Danielle de Niese, Nicola Benedetti, Kim Criswell and Maxim Vengerov. Recent engagements include debuts with orchestras in Atlanta, Buffalo, Nashville, Naples, Pittsburgh and Washington. Work with new music ensembles include Vox 21 and Crash Ensemble (of which he is a board member), the Irish premiere of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, and world premiere of Nico Muhly arrangements for Iarla Ó Lionáird. David won Sky Arts’ 2013 Ignition Award for Mahagonny, co-produced by Rough Magic and Opera Theatre Company. Collaborations with actors include Brendan Gleeson, Fiona Shaw, Stephen Rea and Adrian Dunbar. Opera includes Lyric Opera, Opera Ireland, and NI Opera. His Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires debut – A Streetcar Named Desire’s South American premiere – garnered widespread acclaim, as did his recording of Victor Herbert’s Eileen.
He has worked with singer-songwriters Eleanor McEvoy and Paul Brady; composers Shaun Davey, Neil Martin, Bill Whelan, Arvo Pärt, David Fennessy, Donnacha Dennehy, Gavin Bryars; traditional musicians Altan, Liam O’Flynn, Sharon Corr, Máirtín O’Connor, Lúnasa, The Chieftains, Clannad, Carlos Núñez, and Martin Hayes; and collaborated with U2, Christy Moore, Sinéad O’Connor, Phil Coulter and Neil Hannon.
David has broadcast on RTÉ, BBC, CBC, Sky Arts and Europe-wide with EBU, and recorded for Silva Screen, Lyric fm, Tara Music and New World. Television includes the National Concert Hall’s 25th anniversary gala, The Symphony Sessions (RTÉ) and Proms in the Park (BBC). Film credits include collaborations with directors Neil Jordan and Stephen Frears. He presented the multi-award-winning Instrumental, High Hopes Choir, David Brophy’s Choir of Ages and David Brophy’s Unsung Heroes (RTÉ). He has an honorary doctorate from the Open University.
In 2024, David was appointed Chief Conductor with WDR Funkhausorchester, Cologne.
Claudia Boyle soprano
Irish Soprano Claudia Boyle has secured her stellar international profile in recent seasons through highly acclaimed performances in Paris, Zurich, Rome and New York.
Recent career highlights have included singing the role of Dede in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, and the role of Silvia de Avila in Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel for Opéra National de Paris, Cunegonde (Candide) for Welsh National Opera, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) for Irish National Opera, Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Komische Oper Berlin, Alice (Alice’s Adventures Underground) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden under Thomas Adès, Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at Semperoper Dresden and Den Norske Opera, Leïla (The Pearl Fishers) for English National Opera, and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) conducted by James Conlon at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
She created the role of May-Shan in Christian Jost’s opera Rote Laterne under Alain Altinoglu for Opernhaus Zürich. Claudia performed with the New York Philharmonic at the Metropolitan Opera’s Lincoln Center, singing the role of Cecily Cardew in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Her blossoming concert career has taken her further afield to Tokyo, São Paolo and Ankara. She has appeared at the Salzburger Festspiele in Cherubini’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn under Riccardo Muti and with NHK Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Paavo Järvi.
Claudia has won both the First Prize and the Critics Award at The Maria Calla Competition in Verona where the Callas Estate presented her with the miraculous medal once owned and worn by the legendary singer. She was chosen by esteemed film director Mike Leigh to star in his first-ever venture for the operatic stage as the leading heroine Mabel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in London’s Coliseum.
Future engagements include a return to Irish National Opera next season to sing the role of Adina (L’elisir d’amore). Claudia has recently returned from Wexford Festival Opera singing the title role in Donizetti’s Zoraida di Granata to critical acclaim.
Meet The Orchestra
Get to know the people behind the instruments of the National Symphony Orchestra
Joanne Fleming Campbell Second Violin; String Sub-Principal
When did you join the National Symphony Orchestra?
January 1994.
Where did you study?
The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.
Why did you choose to play your instrument?
I was given the choice of an instrument in school after a musical aptitude test. It was a system used in Northern Ireland, through the Arts Council, to encourage children to play a musical instrument. I could choose a violin, viola or cello. I didn’t know what a viola was, the cello was too big to carry, so I chose the violin!
Who is your favourite composer and what is your favourite work?
I can’t pick one! I love Brahms, Puccini, Prokofiev and Mahler. One of my favourite works is Madama Butterfly.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not playing with the orchestra?
I love painting. I went back to art classes; I studied art at school and I missed it. I also like walking on the beach and baking or cooking with my children.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you most like to be?
A doctor.
What is your greatest achievement –musical or general?
Winning a scholarship to go and study music in New Hampshire for four months.
Do you have any pre-concert rituals or superstitions?
I always bring a tissue and a cough sweet onto stage.
Who is your musical idol?
Queen’s Freddy Mercury.
Do you have any secret talents?
I’m a qualified scuba diver and have a specialty in wreck diving.
You’re stranded on a desert island. You’re allowed 3 CDs. What would they be, and why?
Frank Sinatra – I love all the old big band stuff; Queen – I would have something to sing along to; Madama Butterfly to tug on the heartstrings.
If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be, and why?
David Attenborough. I love his programmes.
Cór Linn
Choral Director Ciarán Kelly
Cór Linn is an auditioned, mixed-voice choir for young singers aged 14-18 meeting weekly during term-time in the National Concert Hall, preparing a wide variety of repertoire from classical to contemporary.
The choir was formed by RTÉ in September 2018 to give opportunities for teenage singers to move from treble to four-part harmony singing (SATB). In 2022, the choir transferred with the National Symphony Chorus and Cór na nÓg to the National Concert Hall to become part of the new National Symphony Orchestra/National Concert Hall choral family.
Rehearsals are highly focused, including sectionals and regular voice coaching, but there is great emphasis on the pure enjoyment of singing and performing together too, with many members then joining adult choirs at college and beyond.
A busy 2024 culminated in a very successful first visit to the City of Derry International Choir Festival, where they won the Youth Choir competition and were runners up in the Sacred Music category. Concerts during 2025 include a celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March) and a concert with Cór na nÓg for New Music Dublin (6 April).
For enquiries about joining, please contact the NSO Choral Manager: lesley.bishop@nch.ie
Cór Linn
Aine McPolin
Alannah Davis
Anna O’Cathain
Antoni Panszczyk
Arthur Otchenashchenko
Artur Quintino Bernardo
Ava McEntee
Ava McKenna
Callum Duffy
Caoimhe Kavanagh
Cara O’Rourke
Catherine Leahy
Cillian O Mír
Clementine Xu
Colin Brown
Conor Byrne
Elizabeth Cantwell
Emer Duffy
Eoin Devitt
Ewan McKenna
Finn Moran
Filip Panszczyk
Gracie Hourihane
Hannah Löfstrand
Holly Robbins
Isla Smyth-Graham
Jack Cahill
James Donohoe
Jay Xu
Joseph Tuliani
Kate McNamara
Katie Creggy
Ken Paulson
Kian Humphreys
Lucy Colleary
Maebh Harte
Maedhbh McCarthy
Marc Hooper
Matthew Leamy
Michael Kennedy
Molly O’Connell
Molly Verdier
Neasa McMenamy
Oisin Govender
Olivia Ruiz Martinez
Ralph Gowran
Robert O’Brien
Roisin Tuliani
Seán Hynes
Shaun Paulson
Sofia Quintino Bernardo
Sophie Gahan
Sophie Lawlor
Sophie McKenna
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra has been at the centre of Ireland’s cultural life for over 75 years. Formerly the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, it was founded in 1948 as the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, the Orchestra transferred from RTÉ to the remit of the National Concert Hall.
Resident orchestra of the National Concert Hall since its opening in 1981, it is a leading force in Irish musical life through year-long programmes of live music –ranging from symphonic, choral and operatic to music from stage and screen, popular and traditional music, and new commissions – alongside recordings, broadcasts on RTÉ and internationally through the European Broadcasting Union. Schools concerts, family events, initiatives for emerging artists and composers, collaborations with partner promoters and organisations extend the orchestra’s reach.
As a central part of the National Concert Hall’s 2024-2025 Season, the NSO presents more than 55 performances shared between Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork. They include collaborations with international and Irish artists, ensembles and conductors – including a number of events with the National Concert Hall’s Artists-in-Residence: the renowned American musician and composer Bryce Dessner, the internationally acclaimed Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, and the dynamic musician and presenter Jessie Grimes. The programme is rich and varied, presenting repertoire from across the centuries to the present day including world and Irish premieres, choral masterpieces, birthday and anniversary celebrations, family concerts and screenings, schools concerts, and professional initiatives for emerging singers and composers. A focus on nature and the environment is a central part of the season’s programming.
Highlights with the Artists-in-Residence are many. They include three Irish premieres by Bryce Dessner: Mari, his Violin Concerto performed by its dedicatee, Pekka Kuusisto, and his Concerto for Two Pianos performed by Katia and Marielle Labèque, for whom it was written. Tara Erraught performs virtuosic works by Mozart, Haydn and Marianne von Martínez, with historical performance specialist Laurence Cummings conducting, and arias by Mozart, Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, with Clelia Cafiero conducting. Tara is also the driving force behind Celebrating the Voice, a week-long professional development programme for young singers which culminates in an opera gala with the NSO conducted by Anu
Tali. Jessie Grimes leads immersive, family-friendly concerts including Our Precious Planet and explorations of iconic works: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique as part of the ASD-friendly Symphony Shorts, as well as Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, featuring new and specially commissioned shadow puppetry, and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
Other exciting highlights include Dame Sarah Connolly joining conductor Mihhail Gerts for Alma Mahler’s Six Songs; an 80th birthday celebration for conductor Leonard Slatkin which includes the world premiere of his son Daniel’ s cosmic journey, Voyager 130; Hugh Tinney performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto; Speranza Scappucci conducting a Ravel Birthday Celebration; John Storgårds conducting Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; Anja Bihlmaier conducting Mahler’s Ninth Symphony; and Ryan McAdams conducting the First Violin Concerto by Philip Glass with NSO Leader Elaine Clark as soloist; and John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Become Ocean. Jaime Martín returns to conduct Chopin’s Second Concerto with Yeol Eum Son as the soloist, and former Principal Conductor Gerhard Markson returns for Stanford’s Requiem featuring the National Symphony Chorus and soloists including Máire Flavin and Sharon Carty.
World premieres by Deirdre McKay and Ailís Ní Ríain and, as part of Composer Lab, by Amelia Clarkson, Finola Merivale, Barry O’Halpin, and Yue Song all feature. Irish premieres include a new orchestral setting of Philip Glass’s film score Naqoyqatsi with the Philip Glass Ensemble; Stephen McNeff’s The Celestial Stranger with Gavan Ring as soloist; James MacMillan’s St. John Passion with the National Symphony Chorus and Chamber Choir Ireland; and Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá’s Third Symphony.
Additional family events include popular screenings of classic children’s stories by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – Stick Man and The Snail and the Whale – and Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Music in the Classroom returns with Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate Music Guide events, and Musical Adventures for Primary School children.
National Symphony Orchestra
1st Violin
Ingerine Dahl
Jens Lynen
Sebastian Liebig †
Orla Ní Bhraoin °
Catherine McCarthy
Ting Zhong Deng
David Clark
Anne Harte
Bróna Fitzgerald
Claudie Driesen
Karl Sweeney
Molly O’Shea
Hannah Choi
Niamh McGowan
2nd Violin
Siobhán Doyle
Elizabeth McLaren ‡
Joanne Fleming Campbell °
Rosalind Brown
Paul Fanning
Dara O’Connell
Melanie Cull
Evelyn McGrory
Elena Quinn
Magda Kowalska
Matthew Wylie
Deirdre Reddy
Viola
Philip Hall
Francis Harte °
John Murphy
Neil Martin
Cliona O’Riordan
Margarete Clark
Nathan Sherman
Anthony Mulholland
Alison Comerford
Carla Vedres
Cello
Martin Johnson • Polly Ballard ‡
Violetta-Valerie Muth ° Úna Ní Chanainn
Filip Szkopek
Maria Kolby-Sonstad
Matthew Lowe
Sheelagh Harte
Double Bass
Ronan Dunne
Mark Jenkins ‡
Lowri Estell
Waldemar Kozak
Helen Morgan
Jenni Meade
Olaya García Álvarez
Flute
Catriona Ryan • Ríona Ó Duinnín ‡
Piccolo
Sinéad Farrell †
Oboe
Sylvain Gnemmi ‡
Maria Rojas
Clarinet
Seamus Wylie
Matthew Billing †
Bass Clarinet
Fintan Sutton †
Bassoon
Greg Crowley • Rhiannon Carmichael
Contra Bassoon
Hilary Sheil †
Horn
Mark Bennett
Peter Ryan
Bethan Watkeys †
David Atcheler ° Dewi Jones
Trumpet
Holly Clark
Tim Barber
Pamela Stainer
Aoife Garry
Trombone
Jason Sinclair • Gavin Roche ‡
Bass Trombone
Josiah Walters †
Tuba
Francis Magee • Timpani
Niels Verbeek
Percussion
Rebecca Celebuski
Bernard Reilly °
Ronan McKee
Ronan Scarlett
Harp
Andreja Malir • Organ / Piano / Celeste
• Section Leader
† Principal
‡ Associate Principal
° String Sub Principal
◊ Sub Principal 1
Go spreaga an ceol tú.
Bain sult as ceol binn sa Cheoláras Náisiúnta. Is leatsa an Ceol. Is leatsa an Ceoláras Náisiúnta. nch.ie
TÁ SÉ DE CHUMHACHT AG EALAÍONTÓIRÍ AN SAOL A ATHRÚ CHUN FEABHAIS
Tá ESB ag tacú leis na healaíona le fada agus creidimid go bhfuil tábhacht nach beag ag baint leo maidir le ciall a bhaint as athrú an tsaoil agus an t-athrú sin a chur chun tairbhe do chách.
Téigh chuig esb.ie/arts le tuilleadh eolais a fháil.
NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
2024 — 2025 SEASON
INTERNATIONAL ORCHESTRAS AND RECITALS
SUNDAY 16 FEB 2025
7:30PM
PRAGUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Tomáš Brauner conductor
Alexander Sitkovetsky violin
Dvorˇák The Noonday Witch
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Dvorˇák Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World ’
Pre-concert talk 6.15pm-7pm
Tickets from €15
Discounts and Packages Available nch.ie