NCH Season 2024-2025: Stanford's Requiem by National Concert Hall

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL 2024 — 2025 SEASON

CHORAL CONCERTS

National Symphony Orchestra

National Symphony Chorus

FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2025, 7.30pm

National Symphony Orchestra

David Brophy conductor

Aoife Miskelly soprano

Gemma Ní Bhriain mezzo-soprano

Robin Tritschler tenor

Milan Siljanov bass-baritone

National Symphony Chorus

David Young choral director

Deirdre McKay World Premiere of a new work. NSO commission.

Arvo Pärt Berliner Messe

Mozart Requiem

Be the first to hear a new work by Deirdre McKay, ‘EXCEPTIONALLY IMAGINATIVE IN THE SOUND WORLD

SHE CREATES’ (Irish Examiner).

FRIDAY 18 APRIL 2025, 3.30pm

National Symphony Orchestra

David Hill conductor

Christopher Purves baritone

National Symphony Chorus

David Young choral director

Chamber Choir Ireland

Paul Hillier choral director

James MacMillan St. John Passion

Irish Premiere

Hailed by Rowan Williams as ‘A LANDMARK FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC’.

Tickets from €15 • Book now on NCH.IE

National Symphony Orchestra

Puccini 100

Stanford 100

Carlo Rizzi conductor

National Symphony Orchestra

Gerhard Markson conductor

Gwyn Hughes Jones tenor

Máire Flavin soprano

Simon Shibambu bass-baritone

National Symphony Chorus

Sharon Carty mezzo-soprano

David Young choral director

James Way tenor

John Molloy bass

Friday 25 October 2024, 7.30pm

National Symphony Chorus

National Concert Hall

David Young Chorus director

Friday 22 November 2024, 7.30pm

National Concert Hall

Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm Programme

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel Overture in C major / 11’

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4, Italian / 27’ Puccini

Messa di Gloria / 46’

Stanford Requiem / 81’

Broadcast live on RTÉ lyric Live on RTÉ lyric fm

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.

CEO

Robert Read

NCH Board Members

Patron

NCH Board Members

Maura McGrath Chair | James Cavanagh | Cliona Doris

Rebecca Gageby | Hilary Hough | Peter McKenna

Niamh Murray | Michelle O’Sullivan | Don Thornhill

Patron

Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland

Fáilte Welcome

In 1997, during the early years of my artistic relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra, I was invited to conduct the Brahms Requiem at the National Concert Hall.

For the following 25 years we came together for hundreds of rehearsals and concerts, played music from across centuries and countries, and performed at our artistic home, the National Concert Hall, as well as during tours throughout Ireland and to the United States. In May of 2022, 25 years after that initial Brahms concert, the orchestra invited me to return and perform this special piece together again.

Now it is my enormous pleasure to travel back to Dublin, a city that has become a second home to me, to perform another Requiem, this time by C.V. Stanford. If you will allow me, I would call Stanford somewhat of an Irish Brahms – a generation younger than the German composer, he carried on his legacy, while also transforming it with his own personal style. And so it feels as though tonight we come together to complete a trilogy of Requiems.

I would like to thank the National Concert Hall for inviting me to return and work with the National Symphony Chorus, the National Symphony Orchestra and tonight’s outstanding soloists to continue this journey through music – the land of truth and happiness. It feels wonderful to be back home for a week!

Gerhard Markson

Programme Notes

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Requiem

I. Introit: Adagio

II. Kyrie: Allegro tranquillo ed espressivo

III. Gradual: Larghetto

IV. Sequence – Dies Irae: Allegro moderato ma energico

V. Offertorium: Allegro

VI. Sanctus: Allegro non troppo

VII. Agnus Dei et Lux aeterna: Tempo di Marcia funèbre

First performed in 1897, Charles Villiers Stanford’s Requiem had to wait a full century before its first recording when a performance in the National Concert Hall with Adrian Leaper conducting the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Philharmonic Choir (recorded three years earlier) was released on the Marco Polo label.

Re-issued on Naxos Classics, it remains one of only two available recordings, an oversight that borders on neglect and seems, in hindsight, all the more surprising given the Requiem had been well received at its premiere in Birmingham and is widely regarded as a high-watermark of Victorian choral writing.

Stanford was born in Dublin in 1852 the only son of the prominent, well-connected lawyer John James Stanford, an enthusiastic amateur cellist and by all accounts an accomplished bass who was thought highly enough of to be chosen to sing the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah at its 1847 Irish premiere. His mother was equally admired as a pianist.

The proverbial apple falling close to the tree, by the age of seven Stanford was already demonstrating his precocious musical abilities in piano recitals. He had also begun to compose. As a student at Cambridge University, he flourished as a conductor, transforming its musical society into a force to be reckoned with, and began to devote more of his time to composing.

With a desire to rid contemporary music of what he regarded as tired and dated traditions, and equipped with a combustible Irish temper that gave short shrift to opposition wherever he perceived it, Stanford was soon acknowledged as a prominent figure in the musical life of England in the second half of the 19th century. As a tutor at London’s Royal College of Music to the likes of Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, Rebecca Clarke and many other young composers, his influence was to be felt in the succeeding generations that followed him. Knighted by the British crown in 1902, on his death in 1924 he received the accolade of being buried in Westminster Abbey – the stone marking his burial place bearing the inscription ‘A Great Musician’.

Unquestionably the most accomplished of his more than 30 works for orchestra, solo and massed voices, his masterpiece Requiem, forcefully championed by the conductor Thomas Beecham, was composed in memory of the painter Lord Frederic Leighton, a towering figure in late-Victorian Britain who had long been a friend of Stanford’s. For the artist’s funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral in January 1896, he had composed the unaccompanied anthem I heard a voice from heaven.

The Requiem sets the traditional text of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead – a choice that conventional wisdom at the time assumed would pose theological and political problems for the devoutly Protestant Stanford – and is cast on the grandest of scales, one that reaches near-operatic dimensions in places. Even so, it retains a feeling of intimate directness, felt most expressively in its telling depictions of grief and condolence. Above all, it seems to simultaneously celebrate life in its effusive lyricism and warmth of spirit while marking its passing in moments of adroitly marshalled climaxes befitting the gravity and profundity of death.

Its premiere, conducted by Stanford himself, was well received, the critic of The Times asserting that the composer ‘has touched the highest point of his artistic achievement’ while The Daily Telegraph declared ‘a new glory [is] added to English music’.

The acclaim must have been satisfying to Stanford, conscious that none of his earlier works for orchestra, soloists and orchestra had passed into the established repertoire, although his songs, many intended for use in Anglican church services, fared considerably better. But if England claimed the Requiem for its own, Stanford’s influences while composing it had been drawn from elsewhere, most conspicuously from an Italian tradition defined by the sacred music of Renaissance giant Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-94) and his Classical-era compatriot Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842). Others found hints of Gounod and Wagner in its orchestration and attitude.

Stanford approached the work with the utmost seriousness of intent, aware, undoubtedly, of the sensitivities he would have to negotiate and appease as a composer of pronounced Anglican sympathies approaching one of the most revered offices of Roman Catholicism, a religion that continued to draw unwarranted suspicions in a Protestant country.

The choice of a Requiem to pay homage to Lord Leighton was both ambitious and courageous. While its scale points to the esteem the composer held Leighton in – and was fully attuned to popular sentiment towards the artist’s standing as a nationally revered figure – Stanford must have been all too well aware that England had yet to produce a Requiem of note with settings by Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi holding sway as exemplars of the form in the public and critical imagination. But whatever the internal and external pressures he might have felt, Stanford produced a work that proved deeply moving in its marriage of lyricism and drama that seemed to touch the sublime in places.

Leighton’s influence is felt, too, in the painterly concern of Stanford’s execution, one that mirrors his late friend’s gift for elaborate design, emotional richness, Classical poise and precision and, not least, his credo: ‘the vital truth that sincerity is the well-spring of all lasting achievement, and that no good thing ever took root in untruth or self-deception’.

Certainly, Stanford’s Requiem is stamped through by an almost palpable sincerity of expression, one underpinned by an intensity of feeling that speaks to the transcendent grandeur of Catholicism even as it feels controlled by the muted divinity and more grounded strictures of Anglicanism.

That contrast is immediately felt in the opening Introit: Adagio, which begins in calm, contained repose and moves with steady, reverential progress towards

an early, ecstatic climax as the choir sing ‘et lux’ (‘and light’) in appropriately luminous welcome. The entry of organ and brass ink in the magnificence of the moment – the light of redemption shining through even at death’s darkest. The stilled aftermath is followed by assertive solo voices quietened by contemplative choral voices and a discreet orchestral accompaniment that evaporates into silence.

The Kyrie carries itself with orchestral writing of angelic lightness of touch on which solo and choral voices float, rising and falling with pleading candour on sonorous, chordal washes of sound. The orchestral accompaniment shifts from tactfully supportive commentary to quiet, comforting companionship as the movement ends in hushed repose.

Cast in a delicately, reflective mode, the larghetto Gradual provides a welcome moment of respite from the all too present and pressing feelings of loss and letting go. Matching the Kyrie in scope and length, in its exquisite sweetness and delicacy of touch, with high solo voices kept aloft on cosseting woodwinds and keening violins, it arguably betrays the recognisably Irish lineage that coloured much of Stanford’s heartfelt musical accent and often broke through to the surface, as here, in unexpected moments.

The ensuing Sequence – Dies Irae – by far the Requiem’s longest movement –appreciably raises the emotional temperature with its assertive Allegro moderato ma energico (Moderately fast but energetic) signature. Here, Stanford approaches his most operatic. He was, after all, the composer of 10 operas (including the hugely successful Shamus O’Brien, first performed the year before the Requiem) several of which have begun to find their belated return to the stage and onto disc in recent years. In the expansive, rhetorical writing for choir and orchestra there is a noticeably pronounced operatic grandeur on display even as the solo voices aspire towards a more concentrated and intimate aria-like intensity.

That juxtaposition provides the Requiem with its emotional and spiritual fulcrum, high and low solo voices caught in a gently spiralling vortex of numinous, intertwined stillness and mystery, Stanford’s orchestral and choral writing never more dexterously deferential. Here, surely, the composer’s affections for the Requiem’s dedicatee, and his bereftness at his loss, are most touchingly, tenderly revealed, not least in the telling, heart-stopping silence that punctuates the movement. The conflicted emotions voiced in the choral commentary that follows point, poignantly, to the dislocating contrariness experienced by those left

behind after the death of a loved one. It ends in a note of regretful but compliant acceptance.

In startling contrast, the Offertorium: Allegro carries itself with a robustness that suggests a significant corner in Stanford’s process of grieving for his friend has been turned. Seeking refuge in faith – whether defined or claimed by Catholicism or Anglicanism seems now a wholly incidental issue – it celebrates the life that has been and finds succour, at its mid-point, in the shared Christian promise of salvation and the glory that awaits those who have passed into celestial realms.

It is in Stanford’s penultimate movement, the glowing, gentle realisation of the hallowed Sanctus, that other musical evocations of the Mass of the Dead come unabashedly into focus – the intimacy of Mozart’s Requiem, the splendour of Berlioz’s, the chiaroscuro drama of Verdi’s, the poetry of those by Gounod and Fauré. Here, Stanford reveals his heart’s ache at Leighton’s death and his fervent hope that he will enjoy an afterlife in paradisiacal tranquillity, adorned by the glowing angelic voices that accompany its filigree-delicate ending.

Inscribed with the slow, steady tempo of a ‘funeral march’, the concluding Agnus Dei et Lux aeterna reveals Stanford as a subtle master of conjoined orchestral and vocal forces; economic in the deployment of both yet effortlessly expressive with each. It carries itself with a deliberate steadiness of purpose, as if something unfathomable has been resolved, to find comforting acceptance in the mystery of death while admitting to the reassuring covenant of faith. A surging orchestral accompaniment throughout the ‘Agnus Dei’ leads to a rousing, resplendent ‘Lux aeterna’ (‘Light eternal’) before this gloriously accomplished work ends in a moment of glowing, enveloping warmth.

Note by Michael Quinn © National Concert Hall

Stanford: Requiem

I. Introit

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam: ad te omnis caro veniet.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Ad te omnis caro veniet.

I. Introit

Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them.

A hymn becomes you, God, in Zion, and a vow shall be paid to you in Jerusalem.

Hear my prayer: to you all flesh shall come.

Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them.

To you all flesh shall come.

II. Kyrie Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

III. Gradual

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

In memoria aeterna erit iustus: ab auditione mala non timebit.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.

II. Kyrie

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

III. Gradual

Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them.

The just man shall remain in memory everlasting: he shall not fear the evil hearing.

Grant them eternal rest, Lord.

IV. S equence (Dies Irae)

Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla. Quantus tremor est futurus Quando iudex est venturus Cuncta stricte discussurus.Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulchra regionum Coget omnes ante thronum.

IV. S equence (Dies Irae)

Day of wrath, that day will dissolve the earth in ashes, as David and the Sibyl bear witness.

What dread there will be when the judge shall come to judge all things strictly.

A trumpet, spreading a wondrous sound through the graves of all lands, will drive all before the throne.

Mors stupebit et natura Cum resurget creatura Iudicanti responsura.

Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla.

Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulchra regionum Coget omnes ante thronum.

Liber scriptus proferetur In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus iudicetur. Iudex ergo cum sedebit Quid quid latet apparebit.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus Iudex ergo cum sedebit Quid quid latet apparebit.

Quem patronum rogaturus? Nil inultum remanebit.

Cum vix iustus sit securus?

Rex tremendae maiestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis.

Death and nature will be astonished when creation rises again to answer to the judge.

Day of wrath, that day will dissolve the earth in ashes, as David and the Sibyl bear witness.

A trumpet, spreading a wondrous sound through the graves of all lands, will drive all before the throne.

A book, written in, will be brought forth in which is contained everything that is, out of which the world shall be judged. When therefore the judge takes his seat whatever is hidden will reveal itself. What then shall I say, wretch that I am, when therefore the judge takes his seat whatever is hidden will reveal itself. What advocate entreat to speak for me? Nothing will remain unavenged. When even the righteous may hardly be secure?

King of awful majesty, who freely saves the redeemed, save me, fount of goodness.

Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae, Ne me perdas illa die. Salva me, fons pietatis. Quaerens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus, Tantus labor non sit cassus.

Iuste iudex ultionis, Donum fac remissionis ante diem rationis. Ingemisco tamquam reus, culpa rubet vultus meus, Supplicanti parce, Deus. Qui Mariam absolvisti et latronem

Remember, blessed Jesu, that I am the cause of your pilgrimage. Do not forsake me on that day. Save me, fount of goodness.

Seeking me you sat down weary, you redeemed me, suffering the cross; let not such toil be in vain.

Just and avenging judge, grant remission before the day of reckoning.

exaudisti, mihi quoque spem dedisti. Preces meae non sunt dignae, Sed tu bone fac benigne, ne perenni cremer igne. Inter oves locum praesta, et ab haedis me sequestra, Statuens in parte dextra.

Confutatis maledictis Flammis acribus addictis, voca me cum benedictis. Oro supplex et acclinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis: Gere curam mei finis. Voca me cum benedictis.

Lacrimosa dies illa Qua resurget ex favilla Iudicandus homo reus.

Huic ergo parce, Deus.

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem sempiternam.

Amen.

V. Offertorium

Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundu lacu.

Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae. Libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum. Sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam.

I groan like a guilty man, guilt reddens my face.

Spare a supplicant, God.

You who absolved Mary and listened to the thief, to me also have you given hope.

My prayers are not worthy, but you in your merciful goodness grant that I burn not in everlasting fire.

Place me among your sheep, and separate me from the goats, setting me on your right hand.

When the accursed have been confounded and given over to the bitter flames, call me with the blessed. I pray in supplication on my knees, my heart contrite as the dust: take care of my end.

Call me with the blessed.

Mournful that day when shall rise from the dust guilty man to be judged. Therefore spare him, God. Merciful Jesu, Lord, grant them rest eternal.

Amen.

V. Offertorium

Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit.

Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory. Deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that hell may not swallow them up, nor they fall into darkness.

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini eius.

Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus: tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus.

Fac eas, Domine, de morte … Transire ad vitam.

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini eius.

But may the holy standard-bearer Michael lead them into holy light.

As you once promised to Abraham and his seed.

We offer prayers and sacrifices of praise to you, Lord: you receive them on behalf of those souls, whose memory we recall today.

Cause them, Lord, from death … To pass to life.

As you once promised to Abraham and his seed.

VI. Sanctus

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus

Sabaoth:

pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna in excelsis.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Osanna in excelsis.

VII. Agnus Dei – Lux aeterna

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

VI. Sanctus

Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts: heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

VII. Agnus Dei – Lux aeterna

Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, grant them rest. May eternal light shine upon them, Lord, with your saints for ever, for you are good.

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL

2024 — 2025 SEASON

CELEBRATING THE VOICE

A Professional Development Programme for Singers

Designed and led by Artist-in-Residence

Tara Erraught

MONDAY 10 FEBRUARY – FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2025

12 singers, seven Irish and international industry experts

12 events including a song recital, opera gala with the National Symphony Orchestra, public masterclasses, vocal coaching, talks, conversations and panel discussions.

Full programme now available. See nch.ie

Gerhard Markson conductor

Gerhard Markson studied conducting with Igor Markevitch and Franco Ferrara. Having started his career as an opera conductor at the opera houses in Augsburg, Oldenburg and Freiburg, he was general music director of the Hagen Theatre from 1991 to 1998.

Gerhard has a busy international conducting career. He has worked with over 100 orchestras worldwide, including the St. Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swiss Radio Symphony Orchestra in Basel and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He was Principal Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2009.

Gerhard has appeared at such prestigious festivals as the Berlin Festival Weeks, Colorado Music Festival, the Hong Kong Festival and the Seoul Festival. He also has an extensive recording career. Recordings with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra include Ein Heldenleben, Macbeth and Don Quixote by Richard Strauss.

From 2010 until 2016 Gerhard was professor and artistic director of the Norwegian Opera Academy in Oslo. Since 2008, Gerhard has been Principal Guest Conductor with the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Freiburg Opera.

Máire Flavin soprano

Dublin-born soprano Máire Flavin graduated with joint honours in Psychology and Music from Queen’s University, Belfast, before continuing her vocal studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama Opera Course, and the National Opera Studio, London.

Her operatic engagements have included Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro, Salzburger Landestheater; Opera North; Irish National Opera); Bianca in the world premiere of La Cucina (Wexford Festival Opera); Mathilde (Guillaume Tell), Violetta (La traviata), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Chrysothemis (Elektra) and Mimì (La bohème) with Irish National Opera; Violetta, Anna Sørensen (Silent Night), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), title role Alcina and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) for Opera North; Mimì (Cork International Opera Series; Opera Theatre Company; Iford Arts Festival); Hannah in the world premiere of The Second Violinist (Irish National Opera); Musetta (La bohème, Lyric Opera Ireland); Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte, Welsh National Opera); Nella and covers of Suor Angelica and Giorgetta (Il Trittico) for Scottish Opera; Agrippina (Northern Ireland Opera; Opera Collective Ireland); Emmy Perth (Der Vampyr, Cork International Festival); Dido (Dido and Aeneas, Théâtre des Champs Elysées); and Elena (La donna del lago, Buxton International Festival).

On the concert platform she has performed Mahler’s Second Symphony, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, and Viennese Gala concerts (National Symphony Orchestra); Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Royal Albert Hall); Harty’s Children of Lir and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella (RTÉ Concert Orchestra); Mozart Requiem (Orchestra of Welsh National Opera; RTÉ Concert Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra); New Year’s Day Opera Gala with Atalla Ayan, and Once upon a Dream: Celebrating Disney (National Symphony Orchestra); and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony (Deutsche Philharmonie) with conductors such as Mark Wigglesworth, Nathalie Stutzmann, Lothar Koenig, Jac van Steen, Alan Buribayev, John Wilson, Rumon Gamba, Jonathan Cohen, Jean-Claude Malgoire and Christoph Poppen. An avid recitalist, she reached the song prize final at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and has appeared in recital with Simon Lepper, Gary Matthewman, and Nico de Villiers internationally.

Sharon Carty mezzo-soprano

Sharon Carty is an alumna of the RIAM Dublin, MDW Vienna, and Oper Frankfurt Opera Studio. Regularly praised for her musicality, intelligence, integrity as an artist and the warmth, clarity and agility of her voice, her opera repertoire includes many of the important lyric and coloratura mezzo-soprano roles, such as Hänsel, Dido, Ruggiero, Dorabella, Cherubino, Ariodante, Orfeo (Gluck) and Sesto (Handel).

Her concert repertoire includes all the principal works of J.S Bach, Messiah, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, and a broad song repertoire in addition to numerous chamber music works. A dedicated song recitalist, she most recently appeared in performances with Finghin Collins and Jonathan Ware.

Recent opera highlights include her Italian debut at the Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, where she premiered Silvia Colasanti’s Proserpine to critical acclaim, Dorabella with Irish National Opera, and her critically acclaimed debut with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival as Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare conducted by Nicholas McGegan.

A champion of new music, she has given several world premieres of Irish composers, including Deirdre Gribbin/Ethan Stein’s The Stones of Life, Anne-Marie O’Farrell/Ed Vulliamy’s Who’d ever think it would come to this?, and David Coonan/Dylan CoburnGrey’s Horse, Ape, Bird.

2024-2025 brings orchestral concerts with Wexford Festival Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra, chamber music in Ireland and Europe, and a role debut as Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) with Irish National Opera. In 2025 she will be the next Artistic Director of Sligo Baroque Music Festival.

Her discography includes La traviata on Naxos DVD with the NDR Radiophilharmonie alongside Thomas Hampson and Marina Rebeka, The Mountebanks (Gilbert/Cellier) on CD with the BBC Concert Orchestra/John Andrews, as well as Schubert with Jonathan Ware on the GENUIN label, and two discs of C.V. Stanford songs on SOMM Recordings and Resonus.

As the designated awardee of the 2024-2025 Music Network/Centre Culturel Irlandais Performance Residency, she is looking forward to spending a month in Paris working on French Baroque and Romantic repertoire.

James Way tenor

James was winner of the Second Prize in the 62nd Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall. He is a former BrittenPears Young Artist, a laureate of both the Les Arts Florissants ‘Jardin des Voix’ and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Rising Stars young artist programmes, and was awarded an Independent Opera Voice Fellowship. James was selected to participate in Barbara Hannigan’s inaugural Equilibrium Young Artists Programme.

The versatility of his voice means he is equally comfortable in later repertoire and has a particular affinity for the music of Britten and Stravinsky. His performances include Flute in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Dalia Stasevska, The Son in Laurent Pelly’s production of Les Mamelles de Tiresias (winner of Best New Opera Production at the 2022 Opera Awards) with Robin Ticciati, both for Glyndebourne Festival, Holy Fool (Boris Godunov) with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Jakub Hruša, and Lechmere (Owen Wingrave) for Grange Park Opera, and several performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with orchestras including the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic with Barbara Hannigan, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Sinfonica de Milano with Alpesh Chauhan.

In demand as an interpreter of Handel, his performances of Messiah have won praise with orchestras internationally including Handel & Haydn Society Boston, Les Arts Florissants, Freiburger Barockorchester, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Dunedin Consort. His debut as Jupiter in Handel’s Semele at the Musikverein was the start in a long line of Handel roles including Samson (title role), Acis and Damon (Acis and Galatea), Tempo (Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno), Lurcanio (Ariodante), as well as tenor soloist in Israel in Egypt, Foundling Anthem and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.

This coming season’s highlights include Mozart Requiem with Göteborgs Symfoniker, Handel’s Messiah with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and with the English Concert on an EU tour. He will also perform with Les Arts Florissants under William Christie in Il trionfo del Tempo (Tempo).

Photo Credit: Paul Barber

John Molloy bass

Irish bass John Molloy studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where he was a major scholar of the Sir Peter Moores Foundation. He graduated in 2005 receiving the college’s highest accolade for performance – PPRNCMDip. He also completed studies at the National Opera Studio in London.

John has performed extensively in opera and concert throughout Europe. Engagements this season include Sir Thomas Allen’s production of The Barber of Seville and Jonathan Dove’s new opera, Marx in London!, both with Scottish Opera, and The Yeomen of the Guard with English National Opera. Last Summer he made his BBC Proms debut with Horrible Histories –’Orrible Opera at the Royal Albert Hall.

Previous engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Robert O’Dwyer’s Eithne and Puccini’s La bohéme.

Forthcoming engagements include Trade by Emma O’Halloran at Kilkenny Arts Festival and L’elisir d’amore with Irish National Opera. Concert engagements include Béatrice et Bénédict with Irish National Opera, Verdi’s Requiem with RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and Stanford’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Meet The Orchestra

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

Ting Zhong Deng

First Violin

When did you join the National Symphony Orchestra? 1990.

Where did you study?

I started my studies in Shanghai, China and then moved to the UK for two years before moving to Dublin to join the National Symphony Orchestra.

What do you enjoy most about being in the NSO?

I really enjoy working with this very dynamic group of people and having the opportunity to perform such a variety of music with different conductors from around the world. I developed a lot during my time with the NSO, therefore I really enjoy seeing the young players starting out too.

Tell us your favourite NSO story/memory so far.

My favourite memory would have to be when we toured to Beijing, China in 2017 and performed in the prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts. It was a busy trip but we managed to visit some of the famous sites too, a highlight being the Great Wall of China. Everyone had a wonderful time

What is the last piece of music you listened to?

I listened to a recording of the superb American violinist Michael Rabin, who sadly died very young.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not playing with the orchestra?

I really enjoy looking after my cat, Eden. I also enjoy meeting up with friends.

Have you any secret talents?

Cooking! It is something I started when I first moved to Ireland. Cooking is another artform to me, taking the ingredients and creating something for friends and family.

Do you have any pre-concert rituals or superstitions?

I am often the first to arrive to the National Concert Hall ahead of rehearsals or a concert; during this time I like to grab a coffee and relax.

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

Elaine Clark (Leader)

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

Lucia Mac Partlin

Deirdre Reddy

2nd Violin

Elizabeth McLaren ‡

Joanne Fleming Campbell °

Odile Ollagnon

Rosalind Brown

Paul Fanning

Dara O’Connell

Melanie Cull

Evelyn McGrory

Elena Quinn

Magda Kowalska

Niamh McGowan

Conor Masterson

Viola

Emma Sheppard

Francis Harte °

Ruth Bebb

Neil Martin

Cliona O’Riordan

Margarete Clark

Nathan Sherman

Alison Comerford

Carla Vedres

Aoife Magee

Cello

Polly Ballard ‡

Violetta-Valerie Muth °

Matthew Lowe

Úna Ní Chanainn

Filip Szkopek

Maria Kolby-Sonstad

Eva Richards

Austen Scully

Double Bass

Jamie Kenny

Mark Jenkins ‡

Gareth Hopkins

Waldemar Kozak

Helen Morgan

Jenni Meade

Olaya García Álvarez

Flute

Ríona Ó Duinnín ‡

Sinéad Farrell †

Oboe

Matthew Manning •

Sylvain Gnemmi ‡

Cor Anglais

Ben Gannon

Clarinet

Deirdre O’Leary

Matthew Billing †

Bassoon

Greg Crowley •

John Hearne

Contra Bassoon

Hilary Sheil †

Horn

Stephen Nicholls

Peter Ryan

Joseph Ryan

Sarah Johnson

Caoime Glavin

Trumpet

Christopher Deacon

Stephen Murphy

Pamela Stainer

Trombone

Jason Sinclair •

Gavin Roche ‡

Bass Trombone

Josiah Walters †

Tuba

Francis Magee •

Timpani

Niels Verbeek

Percussion

Bernard Reilly ◊

Ronan Scarlett

Harp

Andreja Malir •

Organ

Fergal Caulfield

• S ection Leader

† Principal

‡ A ssociate Principal

° S tring Sub Principal

◊ S ub Principal 1

National Symphony Chorus

Chorus Director: David Young

The National Symphony Chorus, formerly the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, has been at the heart of Irish choral life since its foundation by Colin Mawby in 1985 and prepares at least five projects each concert season. The choir was further developed by conductors Mark Duley (1996-2011) and Mark Hindley (2012-18), with the dynamic British conductor David Young appointed in 2019. Now rehearsing weekly in the National Concert Hall, it is Ireland’s largest choir with more than 150 dedicated voluntary members, some travelling from as far as Cork, Kildare, Louth, Limerick, Meath, Roscommon, Tipperary, Wicklow and Wexford to take part.

Membership is by audition. For information, please contact: lesley.bishop@nch.ie

SOPRANOS

Fiona Arnold

Charlotte Arnold

Francesca Barlow

Miriam Broderick

April Cronin

Vera Cronin

June Daly

Sadhbh Dennedy

Liz Dodd

Muireann Doherty

Dee Durkan

Deirdre Grier

Olwen Grindley

Avril Hannin

Ethna Higgins

Jenny Hughes

Catherine Hughes

Edna Jordan

Joanna Kocon

Eileen McGee

Patricia McVeigh

Aimee Millar

Michelle Nolan

Julie O’Brien

Siobhán O’Carroll

Éimear O’Flynn

Lucy O’Reilly

Clodagh O’Reilly-Boyles

Sorina Popa

Róisín Power

Elaine Reddy

Aoife Rickard

Suzanne Roux

Aoife Smith

Magda Szekely

Caitriona Travers

Máire Travers

Lisa Walls

ALTOS

Aine Balfe

Gillian Barry

Nikki Barry

Susan Barry

Elaine Boyd

Helen Bradley

Muireann Brennan

Mary Bruton

Lorraine Callaghan

Mary Clarke

Philippa Cottle

Mary de Courcy

Evelyn Deasy

Joan Dempsey

Aoife Doyle

Maura Eaton

Norrie Egan

Mary Farrell

Christine Ferguson

Linda Glen

Ellis Gordijn

Maria Harford

Una Hayes

Ann Marie Higgins

Margaret Jungels

Elizabeth Keighary

Caroline Lenehan

Catherine Martin

Léan McMahon

Maireád McNeela

Kseniia Medvedieva

Maile Miller

Claire Moloney

Natalie O’Brien

Jeanne-Marie Phillips

Patricia Quigley

Caroline Stone-Aubin

Ann Swift

Isobel Walsh

Anne White

Leslie Wrenn

TENORS

Nigel Brislane

Emer Byrne

Harry Campbell

Anthony Carrick

Conal Cosgrove

Niamh Goucher

Christopher Hapka

Joseph Jones

Pat Kitterick

Barra Lysaght

Rory MacIver

James McNeill

Peter Martin

Gerard Moynihan

Patrick O’Beirne

Brian O’Brien

Alicja Przybys

Richard Stables

Jim Ward

David Wright

Marta Zduniak

BASSES

William Abrahamson

Padraig Barry

Cristiano Dias

Edmund Dodd

Conor Donelan

Gerard Flanagan

Kevin Gormley

John Hayes

Kevin Hughes

Bernard Keogh

Michael Lee

Christopher Maher

Michael McCabe

Gareth McCarthy

Daniel McGuinness

Brian McIvor

Simon O’Leary

John O’Neill

Padraig O’Rourke

Kevin O’Connell

Joseph O’Dea

Stephen Peel

Sean Phelan

Douglas Ponton

Tony Sanfey

Niall Sheehy

Nigel Somerfield

Jonathan Williams

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

WHERE CONCERTS MAKE CONNECTIONS

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL

2024 — 2025 SEASON

INTERNATIONAL ORCHESTRAS

AND RECITALS

SATURDAY 30

NOVEMBER 2024

7.30PM

PARAORCHESTRA

Charles Hazlewood conductor

Victoria Oruwari soprano

The pioneering ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians, with guest soprano Victoria Oruwari, led by Charles Hazlewood perform Górecki’s cathartic and hauntingly beautiful work Symphony of Sorrowful Songs , preceded by Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, a melancholic, iridescent and urgent piece realised for full string orchestra by Mahler.

Pre-concert talk 6.15pm-7pm

Tickets from €15

Discounts and Packages Available nch.ie