NCH Season 2024-2025: New Year's Day with the NSO by National Concert Hall

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 01.01.25

2024—2025 SEASON

FAMILY CONCERT

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON

National Symphony Orchestra Strauss 200 Gavin Maloney conductor I Jennifer Davis soprano National Concert Hall Wednesday 1 January 2025, 3.30pm Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm

Programme Johann Strauss II Éljen a Magyar! Johann Strauss II Csárdás from Ritter Pásmán Millöcker ‘Ich schenk’ mein Herz’ (Die Dubarry) Johann Strauss II Persischer Marsch (Persian March) Johann Strauss II Tausend und eine Nacht (Thousand and One Nights) Lehár ‘Einer wird kommen’ (Der Zarewitsch) Heuberger ‘Im chambre séparée’ (Der Opernball)

PETER AND THE WOLF & THE YOUNG PERSON’S GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA A magical fusion of sight and sound for all ages. Storytelling, puppetry and orchestral brilliance. National Symphony Orchestra Jessie Grimes presenter | Maeve Clancy shadow puppetry Neasa Ní Chuanaigh shadow puppetry | Gavin Maloney conductor

SUNDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2025, 12.30pm, 3pm, 5pm Designed for children aged 5 and up and their families, all are welcome. Tickets: Full Price €30, Child €23, Restricted View €15, Family Ticket €94 (4 tickets, maximum 2 adults)

nch.ie

Josef Hellmesberger II Danse diabolique Johann Strauss II Die Fledermaus Overture Johann Strauss II Czárdás (Die Fledermaus) Richard Strauss ‘Moonlight Music’ (Capriccio) Johann Strauss II On the Beautiful Blue Danube Josef Strauss Ohne Sorgen! (Without Cares!) Lehár ‘Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss’ (Giuditta) Johann Strauss II Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning Polka)

PLEASE NOTE: The NCH does not permit photography or videography during the performance (without prior permission). We kindly ask you to refrain from using any recording equipment for the duration of tonight’s performance.

Patron Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland

Happy New Year! On New Year’s Day 2025 it’s a great pleasure to be with you, the wonderful Jennifer Davis, and our National Symphony Orchestra. Today we herald the coming year, and celebrate its perennial augur, Johann Strauss II, who was born 200 years ago in Vienna. There is a famous story which illustrates why Johann Strauss II already held the honorific ‘Waltz King’ in his own lifetime. As the story goes, Adele Deutsch, wife of Strauss, asked the composer Brahms to autograph her fan. He wrote on it the opening notes of The Blue Danube waltz, adding the words, ‘Alas, not by Johannes Brahms!’. Strauss was active during the years of fin de siècle Vienna, and his times mirror our own in challenging ways. It was a period of unprecedented, destabilising change characterised by a mix of decadence, pessimism, innovation, and anxiety about the future. Strauss, with his enviable gift for melody, reassured, uplifted, and charmed the public, composing through the familiar forms of waltz, polka and quadrille. There is an enduring tradition of performing the music of Johann Strauss II on New Year’s Day. But this year, the year of his 200th birthday, is special. Today’s programme reflects his remarkable legacy, which we are delighted to celebrate with you. I wish you all happiness, health and prosperity in 2025, and beyond.

Gavin Maloney

Programme Notes Johann Strauss II (1825-99)

Johann Strauss II (1825-99)

Éljen a Magyar!

Persischer Marsch (Persian March)

‘Hail to Hungary!’ is the stirring declaration of Éljen a Magyar!, a vivacious ‘schnell-

A favourite of the composer’s, the Persischer Marsch was composed in 1864

polka’ dedicated to ‘the Hungarian nation’. It was composed in 1869 in Pest,

and dedicated to Näser od-Dïn, the Shah of Persia (now Iran) who had earlier

which combined with its neighbour across the River Danube, Buda, four years later

bestowed Strauss with the accolade of the Persian Order of the Sun. It’s a work

to become Hungary’s capital city. Infused with national spirit and optimism, and

full of bristling pomp and strutting poise as befits music originally described as an

laced with fiery Romani-Gypsy exuberance, its animatedly intense ending features

‘army march’. The Trio section quotes a theme from Persia’s then national anthem.

a fleeting reference to the Rákóczi March, one of Hungary’s unofficial national

When the Shah visited Vienna for the 1873 World Exhibition, a military band, having

anthems and a theme also borrowed by Berlioz and Liszt.

failed to find the music for the national anthem, substituted the Persischer Marsch instead, od-Dïn reportedly approving of its use.

Johann Strauss II (1825-99) Csárdás from Ritter Pásmán

Johann Strauss II (1825-99) Tausend und eine Nacht (Thousand and One Nights)

A tale of illicit love at the Hungarian Court, Ritter Pásmán was Strauss’s sole attempt at writing a grand opera. Premiered on New Year’s Day, 1892, such was

If Strauss’s first stage work, Indigo and the Forty Thieves, is remembered at all now,

the indifference that public and critics greeted it that he never again attempted

it is thanks to the waltz, Tausend und eine Nacht, which draws on themes from

a serious opera. Salvaged from the wreckage was the Csárdás, which quickly

that now forgotten operetta. Principal among them is the dreamy melody for ‘Ja,

claimed its place in the concert hall. It’s easy to appreciate why. Typically it starts

so singt man’ voiced by clarinet in the introduction. What follows is an exercise

slowly, and here rather melancholically, before gathering pace to finish in a

in beautifully manicured contrasts: the first waltz strutting with self-assurance; the

veritable gallop with rhythms at full tilt as passion and drama collide and combust.

second a whirl of decorously controlled delirium; the next an elegant sashay, until it ignites into combustible excitability. The dreamy introduction returns at the end,

Carl Millöcker (1842-99)

gathering pace towards an accelerated flourish of repeated chords, thrashing

‘Ich schenk’ mein Herz’ (Die Dubarry)

drum rolls and a bravura brass fanfare.

Of the 21 operas and operettas composed by Carl Millöcker, it’s likely only Die Dubarry – a tale of the titular mistress to France’s Louis XV – is familiar to audiences today. If only for its melting, stand-out aria, ‘Ich schenk mein Herz’ (I give my heart). Truth be told, Die Dubarry isn’t Millöcker’s. Instead, it was the title given to a new version in 1931 of the composer’s 1879 Gräfin Dubarry, to which was added music from his other work and a wholly new text.

Franz Lehár (1870-1948)

Johann Strauss II (1825-99)

‘Einer wird kommen’ (Der Zarewitsch)

Die Fledermaus Overture

Composed with the renowned Austrian tenor Richard Tauber in mind, Der

The ‘Waltz King’ colossus of Vienna dominated the ballrooms, salons and concert

Zarewitsch was premiered in Berlin in 1927 at the height of Franz Lehár’s career.

halls of the 19th century and gave respectability and permanence to operetta. He

Loosely based on the destructive relationship between Tsar Peter the Great and his

composed more than a dozen stage works, all of which sparkle with the elegant

son Alexei, it spins brutal fact into bewitching fiction in a poignant tale of political

wit and eloquent invention of his orchestral music. None more so than his comic

intrigue and abandoned love. Underpinned by low strings of almost Mahlerian

operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat), composed in 1874 over 42 ‘nights of veritable

richness, ‘Einer wird kommen’ (‘Someone will come’) is a plaintively bittersweet

rapture’. The Overture perfectly captures the fizzy frivolity and occasionally garish

plea for salvation in the arms of an unreachable loved one.

gaiety of the well-to-do Viennese at play. It’s a glittering cornucopia of tunes and masterly but lightly executed orchestrations seemingly spun from pure silver threads

Richard Heuberger (1850-1914)

that float, as if dancing on air, with sophisticated savoir faire.

‘Im chambre séparée’ (Der Opernball) Johann Strauss II (1825-99) Richard Heuberger gave up a career in engineering for music. Admired as a vocal

Czárdás (Die Fledermaus)

and orchestral composer, of his four operas – famously he balked at the invitation to compose the score for The Merry Widow, the commission passing to Lehár – only

Laying claim to one of the most convoluted plots in all opera, Die Fledermaus

1898’s Der Opernball (The Opera Ball) remains popular. ‘Im chambre séparée’ is a

compensates with countless delights such as that prompted when the vivacious

seductive but spiked entreaty intended to expose an errant husband’s infidelity by

Rosalinde, masquerading as a Hungarian Countess to thwart her husband’s

inviting him to step aside from the gaiety of a ball and into a ‘cosy corner made

dalliances with other women, is challenged to prove that she is who she claims

for two’ with the promise of whispered sweet secrets. How could anyone resist?

to be. The Czárdás is her response: an homage to ‘the melodies of my homeland and the words of my beloved language’. Faux sincere though it is, it nonetheless

Josef Hellmesberger II (1855-1907)

provides a soprano with a glorious occasion to soar and shine.

Danse diabolique Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Born in Vienna, Josef Hellmesberger the younger followed his grandfather, father

Intermezzo from Capriccio, ‘Moonlight Music’

and brother into music, becoming an admired violinist, conductor (leading the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic for two years) and composer. For him, the waltz

The final scene of Richard Strauss’s last opera, Capriccio, begins with one of his

wasn’t just for well-mannered dancing, as his passionate, vibrantly possessed

most indelible passages. An Intermezzo better known as ‘Moonlight Music’, it

Danse diabolique illustrates. Tempting to hear in its moments of abandonment

speaks of unresolved desire as the Countess caught in the middle of a love triangle

a self-portrait of the composer who was forced to flee Vienna after becoming

considers her choices before the day when she must decide. It is also Strauss’s last

embroiled in a scandal involving dancers of the Court Opera company.

purely orchestral statement in an opera-within-an-opera that whimsically poses the question ‘Which is more important – words or music?’ The composer’s answer

INTERVAL

might be implied in this cotton-soft concoction of ecstatic yearning and exquisite wistfulness he subtitled ‘A Conversation Piece for Music’.

Johann Strauss II (1825-99)

By the Beautiful Blue Danube

Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning Polka)

By the Beautiful Blue Danube was originally written for men’s chorus and orchestra

Composed at the height of his powers in 1868, the effervescent Thunder and

and was not an immediate success – Strauss himself cared little for its bewitching

Lightning Polka brilliantly demonstrates why the younger Johann Strauss was so

waltz theme. It has since become his signature work and one of the most-loved

beloved in Europe’s concert and dance halls. It’s a crackling display of orchestral

pieces of music ever written. It’s not hard to understand why. An hypnotically

writing at its most exhilarating and glittering. Despite the thunderous timpani

engaging hymnal to Europe’s longest river – the spine of the then Austro-Hungarian

rolls (every four bars!), pell-mell showers of strings and clashing, cymbal-flashes

Empire – Strauss was never more assured in his use of tonal colours and orchestral

of lighting, it carries itself with carefree zeal, as if two young lovers were rushing

detail than here in music of altogether enchanting beauty.

breathlessly through a summer storm to shelter and solitude away from prying eyes.

Josef Strauss (1827-70)

Notes by Michael Quinn © National Concert Hall

Ohne Sorgen! (Without Cares!) The younger brother of Johann Strauss II – who insisted his sibling was ‘the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular’ – Josef Strauss was born into the most eminent of Vienna’s musical families. He composed nearly 300 works, a great many of them, as was the family tradition, waltzes. For sheer effervescence alone,

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON

Ohne Sorgen! (Without Cares!) certainly lives up to its title: a fleet-footed helterskelter of a polka that only pauses for breath to allow the orchestra to call out cartoon-like laughter. Franz Lehár (1870-1948) ‘Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss’ (Giuditta) My lips, they kiss so warmly’ is the promise of Giuditta’s standout aria, ‘Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiss’. A deliciously knowing and coquettish celebration of sensuality suffused with mock innocence, it finds Giuditta, hiding in the guise of a club songstress, poignantly declaring: ‘On my lips every kiss is like wine, In my arms love is more than divine. It’s engraved in the stars high above me. Men must kiss me, men must love me’.

Grisha Martirosyan

VERONICA DUNNE INTERNATIONAL SINGING COMPETITION FINAL National Symphony Orchestra Wyn Davies conductor Each of the six finalists sing three arias, competing in front of a jury made up of the world’s premier opera experts, chaired by Sir Thomas Allen. In the competition’s 30th year, this promises to be a night of thrilling operatic talent.

TUESDAY 28 JANUARY 2025, 7.30PM Tickets from €15

nch.ie

Gavin Maloney conductor Gavin Maloney is one of Ireland’s foremost musicians. He is Associate Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and has a long-standing relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra and Choirs. After training at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Mozarteum, Salzburg, at the age of 21 Gavin successfully competed for the position of Assistant Conductor of the then RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. He was the inaugural beneficiary of the Bryden Thomson Trust, through whose support he studied at the Danish National Opera and the Lucerne Festival Academy of Pierre Boulez. He has conducted all the leading orchestras and ensembles in Ireland as well as conducting in Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. His distinguished collaborations with classical artists include Gabriela Montero, Tara Erraught, Barry Douglas, Ailish Tynan, John O’Conor, Chloë Hanslip, Hugh Tinney, Finghin Collins and Alban Gerhardt. In the NCH International Concert Series in 2017, he appeared with Maxim Vengerov, who has described him as ‘a great maestro’. Gavin has for several years been bringing Irish music to new audiences, including conducting the world premiere of Bill Whelan’s Linen and Lace with soloist Sir James Galway in 2014. He made a major contribution to Composing the Island in 2016, an RTÉ/NCH festival exploring a century of Irish music, and in 2019 he conducted RTÉ lyric fm’s 20th Birthday Gala celebration. Gavin formerly directed the National Symphony Orchestra’s signature contemporary music series, Horizons. In recent months he has conducted world premieres of works by composers Deirdre Gribbin and Raymond Deane, and significant Irish premieres of music by John Rutter and Kaija Saariaho. His recordings on the NMC and RTÉ lyric fm labels have earned critical acclaim, including that of Gramophone magazine, and his concerts have been broadcast by the BBC, RTÉ, the European Broadcasting Union, Shanghai East Radio, and radio stations in North America and Australia.

Jennifer Davis soprano From Cahir in Ireland, Jennifer is an alumna of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme and, following a series of sensational roles debuts, has been propelled to international attention, winning praise for her gleaming, silvery tone, and dramatic characterisation of remarkable immediacy. This 2024-2025 season, Jennifer will sing Leonore (Fidelio) at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the title role in Arabella at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at Hamburgische Staatsoper. On the concert platform, Jennifer will sing a selection of works by Strauss in the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland’s New Year’s Day concert under the baton of Gavin Maloney. Recent highlights include singing the title role in Jenůfa at English National Opera, Marguerite (Faust) at Irish National Opera, Elsa von Brabant (Lohengrin) at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elsa von Brabant (Lohengrin) and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Dvořák’s Armida at Wexford Festival Opera, and Freia in Das Rheingold at Semperoper Dresden. Future seasons will see returns to Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Irish National Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and house debuts at Grand Théâtre de Genève and New National Theatre, Tokyo. Previous operatic engagements include Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) for Opera North, Helmwige (The Valkyrie) at English National Opera, Lenka (Svadba) for the Aix-enProvence Festival, Violetta (Il bravo), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Agata (Don Bucefalo) for Wexford Festival Opera, Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) for Lyric Opera Productions, Elsa von Brabant (Lohengrin) for Staatsoper Stuttgart, Die Zauberflöte for Welsh National Opera and the Irish National Opera, Leonore (Fidelio) for Wiener Staatsoper, and Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Ifigenia (Oreste), Arbate (Mitridate, re di Ponto), and Ines in Il trovatore for Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Meet The Orchestra

Catherine McCarthy Violin

Get to know the people behind the instruments of the National Symphony Orchestra

When did you join the National

What is your greatest achievement –

Symphony Orchestra?

musical or general?

1984, so the year just ended was a

Hopefully being a good Mum (but

special one for me, marking my 40th

you’d have to run that by my kids).

year as a member of the orchestra. What is the best piece of advice you Where did you study?

ever received – musical or general?

Cork.

Always try to be kind, as you never know what’s going on in people’s lives.

What do you enjoy most about being in the NSO?

Tell us your favourite NSO story/memory

The opportunity to play the vast

so far.

symphonic repertoire.

Looking back over the years, stand-out memories would be the German tours,

Why did you choose to play your

working with Bryden Thompson, and all

instrument?

the amazing concerts we did with him

I began playing the violin aged six. The

and his dry sense of humour!

Suzuki Method was launched in Cork in the late 1960s by the the Lane sisters.

Do you have any secret talents?

They came to my school, gave us

Not sure about that, but people tell me

instruments. That’s where it all started. I

I’m a good cook, and I love to bake.

continued my violin studies in the Cork School of Music with Una Kindlon, while studying for a BMus in UCC, combined with a year of computer programming and statistics. Who is your favourite composer and what is your favourite work? Bach. I can’t single any one work out – too many masterpieces. Mahler is also there for me, in particular the First Symphony – I adore it, it brings back fond memories playing it with the Irish Youth Orchestra. 14

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 16

Symphonie fantastique as part of the ASD-friendly Symphony Shorts, as well as

National Symphony Orchestra

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 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. Other concerts include Martin Hayes with the National Symphony Orchestra, a major new collaboration with the renowned Irish fiddle player and composer

1st Violin Elaine Clark (Leader) Diane Daly Sebastian Liebig † Orla Ní Bhraoin ° Catherine McCarthy David Clark Anne Harte Sylvia Roberts Claudie Driesen Karl Sweeney Molly O’Shea Cliodhna Ryan Justyna Dabek Sarah Perricone

Double Bass Chris West Roger McCann Gareth Hopkins Waldemar Kozak Helen Morgan Maeve Sheil Alex Felle

2nd Violin Thomas Jackson Elizabeth McLaren ‡ Joanne Fleming Campbell ° Paul Fanning Dara O’Connell Melanie Cull Evelyn McGrory Elena Quinn Jenny Burns Duffy Magda Kowalska Matthew Wylie Lucia Mac Partlin

Oboe Matthew Manning • Sylvain Gnemmi ‡

Bass Trombone Josiah Walters †

Cor Anglais Jenny Magee

Tuba Francis Magee •

Clarinet Seamus Wylie Matthew Billing †

Timpani Luke Taylor

Viola Triona Milne Francis Harte ° Ruth Bebb Neil Martin Margarete Clark Nathan Sherman Anthony Mulholland Alison Comerford Carla Vedres Aoife Magee

Basset Horn John Forde

Films, Life on Our Planet in Concert, presenting highlights from across the series on a big screen with Lorne Balfe’s dramatic soundtrack performed live to picture; and, in collaboration with Black Bear and A24, the debut screening of the acclaimed film Sing Sing with Artist-in-Residence Bryce Dessner’s score performed live.

Piccolo Sinéad Farrell †

C-Clarinet Patrick Burke

Bass Clarinet Fintan Sutton † Bassoon Greg Crowley • Sinead Frost Clíona Warren

Trumpet William Palmer Erick Castillo Pamela Stainer Jonathan Corry Trombone Jason Sinclair • Gavin Roche ‡

Percussion Richard O’Donnell Bernard Reilly ◊ Ronan Scarlett Kevin Corcoran Harp Andreja Malir • Aisling Ennis Celeste Fergal Caulfield

Contra Bassoon Clíona Warren

centring around a reimagining with orchestra of his acclaimed 2023 Peggy’s Dream album; and, in partnership with esk film, in association with Netflix and Silverback

Flute Catriona Ryan • Ríona Ó Duinnín ‡

Horn Alec Frank-Gemmill Peter Ryan Bethan Watkeys † David Atcheler ◊ Dewi Jones

Cello Martin Johnson • Polly Ballard ‡ Violetta-Valerie Muth ° Úna Ní Chanainn Filip Szkopek Maria Kolby-Sonstad Matthew Lowe David McCann

• Section Leader † Principal ‡ Associate Principal ° String Sub Principal ◊ Sub Principal 1

Unleash your business potential. Find support at every step.

Tom O’Brien Managing Partner

Go spreaga an ceol tú. Bain sult as ceol binn sa Cheoláras Náisiúnta. Is leatsa an Ceol. Is leatsa an Ceoláras Náisiúnta. nch.ie 20

Forvis Mazars is your dedicated strategic partner throughout your business journey. Whether you’re experiencing rapid growth, assessing risks and opportunities or expanding into international markets, our team of expert financial advisors, tax specialists and audit partners offer invaluable insights and solutions tailored to your unique needs. Together, let’s pave the way to success.

Move forward with Forvis Mazars. Audit | Tax | Advisory forvismazars.com/ie

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 Dvořák Tchaikovsky Dvořák

The Noonday Witch Violin Concerto Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’

Pre-concert talk 6.15pm-7pm Tickets from €15 Discounts and Packages Available

nch.ie