Music

Haven't been here for a while, so the easiest thing is just to jump right in. So in no particular order, ie whatever comes to hand first, here's some stuff worth checking out. The AML are keeping up the good work with a visit from the celebrated Czech string quartet the Prazak Quartet on Sun 25 March @3.15 in George's Hall Dublin Castle. It's the Prazak's 27th visit since 1982 and their programme this time around includes Mozart's Hunt Quartet, Janacek's 'Initmate Letters' and Schubert's fab 'Death and the Maiden'.

A fundraising Tsunami Anniversary Concert at the Peppercannister on Sun 11 @3.30 features rising Japanese soprano Mari Moriya, pianist Takeshi Moriuchi and counter-tenor Daichi Fujiki.

Pipeworks team up with the RTE NSO and the NCH for a free organ recital on Fri 16 March @6.15. As a precursor to the NSO’s 8pm programme (Wagner, Bruckner’s 7th Symphony, R Strauss’ Horn Concerto) David Adams plays Langlais’ apocolyptical ‘La cinquieme trompette’ and Reger’s monumental 2nd Sonata op 60. www.nch.ie

Note Productions present leading young jazz pianist Michael Wollny in a solo recital at the NCH John Field Room on Wed 14 March. Classically trained, his influences range from Bach, Schubert and Messiaen to Bjork, Keith Jarrett and Ligeti. Sounds good. www.note.ie

Music

Another New Year, another New Year’s Resolution: I will update my blog at least once a week; I will update my blog at least once a week… A bit late I know but life and other mysteries have a habit of intervening. In the meantime, some nice music happening around the place. The Irish Composers Collective presents new works for soprano and viola at the NCH’s John Field Room tonight (Thur 19 Jan), including a jazz-inspired waltz (Shades of Meaning), a musical plea for ‘Organ Donation’, settings of Dickinson and Yeats, and a piece of aural hallucination. At the same venue on 31 Jan pianist and ICC member David Bremner and soprano Elizabeth Hilliard perform Garett Sholdice's Three Lieder after Franz Schubert, also written especially for the duo, as well as Bremner's own The bright kids (logic ballad), Webern's Vier Lieder and Schubert's from Schwangesang.

Renowned clarinettist Michael Collins celebrates his 50^th birthday in style with a lovely concert at St Patrick’s Church in Dalkey on Tue 24 Jan. Presented by the indefatigable John Ruddock of the AML, it features the magnificent Vogler Quartet playing Beethoven’s Quartet in A minor op 132 and, with Collins, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet.

Sundays@ Noon & Saturday@ Dublin Castle

Coming up at the Hugh Lane Gallery, the widely-acclaimed ConTempo String Quartet celebrate Romanian National Day on Sun 4 Dec as part of the free Sundays @ Noon series. They play Mozart’s ‘Hunt’ Quartet, Bartok’s Six Romanian Dances and are joined by clarinetist Claudio Mansutti for Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. On Sun 11 Ensemble Avalon play Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no 5 in F major and Piano Trio in C minor. www.hughlane.ie

And on Sat 3 Dec you can catch Ukrainian wunderpianist Alexei Gorlatch, winner of the 2009 Dublin International Piano Competition among many other prizes, in a Music Network recital at Dublin Castle. He plays Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms and Bill Whelan’s ‘The Currach’. www.musicnetwork.ie

Irish Baroque Orchestra

Masterworks from the Irish Baroque Orchestra is a series of 4 one hour concerts at Christ Church Cathedral featuring Baroque blockbusters from Germany, France and Italy. Between Tue 18 and Sun 23 Jan you can hear 4 Bach Suites, 4 Rameau Suites and some of Vivaldi’s finest Concerti da Camera, all under the leadership of the irrepressible Monica Huggett. And if you buy 2 tickets online, you get the 3rd one free. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Happy New Year with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra!

There’s some cracking concerts coming up from the NSO at the NCH this month. On Fri 7 the dazzling young Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang is the soloist in Rodrigo’s magnificent Concierto de Aranjuez, as well as giving the first Irish performance of Stephen Goss’s Albéniz Concerto. More from sunny Espana in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol and da Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, with mezzo Fiona Murphy. And all will be revealed in a discussion/demonstration with Xuefei Yang at 7pm. On Fri 14 trombonist Christian Lindberg doubles up as director and soloist, with Jason Sinclair, in Jan Sandstrom’s Echoes of Eternity for two trombones and orchestra; there’s also music by Weber and Sibelius, and Lindberg features again in a late night Trombone recital with music by Lindberg and Cage – admission €5 or free with the evening concert ticket. Dvorak and Haydn on Fri 21, with NSO principal clarinetist John Finucane in the former’s Serenade for Winds and Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey in the latter’s Cello Concertos in C and D. Wispelwey turns up again in the late night recital with Bach’s Suite No 2 in D minor for solo cello. On Fri 28 Gerhard Markson conducts Bruckner’s massive Symphony No 8 in C minor, followed by a late night recital of Beethoven’s Piano Quintet in E flat featuring Finghin Collins and the RTE NSO Principal Winds. Excellent stuff, and as if that wasn’t enough the free lunchtime Horizons series kicks off on Tue 11 Jan – more of that anon. www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra www.nch.ie

Lunchtime at St Ann's

A series of free lunchtime concerts at St Ann’s Dawson Street kicks off on Thur 28 with The Three Graces, an unusual programme of soprano trios by Monteverdi, Luzzaschi and Barbara Strozzi featuring sopranos Elizabeth Hilliard, Rachel Talbot and Claire Wallace. On Nov 4 Michael Lee sings songs by Schubert, Brahms and Vaughan Williams with Fergal Caulfield on piano; music for voice and piano on Nov 11 features soprano Victoria Massey and Padhraic O Cuinneagain; Triona Marshall plays the Irish Harp on Nov 18; and on Nov 25 Denise Neary talks about the History of Music at St Ann’s Church.

RTE National Symphony Orchestra

There’s some tasty concerts coming up from the RTE NSO when they start their new season at the NCH on Fri 10 Sept. The opening concert kicks off with Jump Up!, a welcoming Fanfare for new Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev, and features acclaimed pianist Simon Trpceski in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 4. Fri 17 has a Latin American flavour, with accordionist James Crabb playing Piazzolla’s Concierto de Aconcagua, and there’s also Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. A new late night short concert slot (10pm) sees James Crabb and RTE NSO Principals in a Tangos Recital – a fiver in or free with the main concert ticket. On Fri 24 pianist Barry Douglas directs the NSO from the keyboard in Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 and conducts the Mussorgksy/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition.

October kicks off with a concert of music inspired by dance, juxtaposing Ravel’s Shéhérazade and La Valse with John Adams’ Guide to Strange Places and The Chairman Dances. Fri 8 has Michael Tippett’s Fantasia and Beethoven’s Eroica, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery. Bach’s Mass in B Minor has pride of place on Fri 15 with the RTE Philharmonic Choir and soloists, and a late night concert features Finghin Collins and NSO Principal Winds in Mozart’s Piano and Wind Quintet. On Fri 22 John Finucane directs and is soloist in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, also conducting Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier suite and Dance of the Seven Veils, and you can hear more Stauss – Don Quichotte – alongside Debussy and Ravel on Fri 29. www.rte.ie

More June

The RTE National Symphony Orchestra may have finished their subscription season but they haven’t quite gone on their hols yet. Instead they’re doing a series of Musical Postcards at the NCH Tue lunchtime and Fri evenings (start time 7.30pm). Among the more interesting are a taste of Bohemia on Fri 25 with Smetana’s Vlatava and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto; Copland and Gershwin on Fri 2 July including Gershwin’s Piano Concerto; Grieg’s Norwegian and Symphonic Dances on Tue 6; Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 on Fri 16; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute & Harp and Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 on Fri 23; and choral group Anuna with music from the 15th to the 21st century on Fri 30. www.rte.ie www.nch.ie

There’s French music from the National Chamber Choir at Smock Alley’s Banquet Hall on Sun 27 June – or if you want to travel further afield, in Navan on Fri 25 and Carlingford on Sat 26. Conducted by the choir’s Artistic Director Paul Hillier, who was founding director of the famous Hilliard Ensemble, the programme revolves around love, birds and war, with a cappella songs by Janequin, Poulenc and Debussy. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

An interesting programme from the Irish Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral on Sat 26 June pits the young Mozart against the more mature Haydn. Young Progidy / Old Master features Mozart’s Gallimathius Musicum, written when he was just ten, and his slightly later Bassoon Concerto (with IBO and Scottish Chamber Orchestra principal Peter Whelan), along with Haydn’s Symphony No 60, written when Haydn was in his 40s. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Tall Tales are at Project from June 29 (preview) with the world premiere of BogBoy, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan that echoes with the fate of the ‘disappeared’ from 1970s Northern Ireland. Set in contemporary Co. Meath, it interweaves the stories of three people who themselves have disappeared through the cracks of Irish society - a young boy from Belfast, a struggling Dublin heroin addict and a reclusive local farmer. Shifting timelines reveal deep friendship, violent murder and unforgivable deceit, as well as a ‘gloriously comic’ clash of contemporary Irish rural/urban culture. Jo Mangan (of The Performance Corporation) directs and the cast includes Steve Blount, Damian Devaney, Emmett Kirwan and Mary Murray. www.projectartscentre.ie

Beethoven & Bruckner

The RTE NSO have a very tasty concert at the NCH this coming Fri (12 Feb), with a great big dollop of Beethoven and Bruckner. First up is Beethoven’s sublime Violin Concerto, the only one he wrote, performed by dynamic Latvian violinist Baiba Skride. Then Bruckner’s great Symphony No 4, the ‘Romantic’ under the baton of rising young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa. Other NSO concerts worth catching include Mozart, Brahms and Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs on 5 March; Ravel’s Bolero and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Nikolai Demidenko on Fri 12; and Brahms and Prokofiev (featuring pianist Boris Berezovsky) on Fri 16 April. www.rte.ie/performinggroups

I'm a Celebrity...

There’s no shortage of glitz & glamour, not to mention fab musicianship, at the NCH’s ongoing Celebrity Concert Series. Virtuoso pianist and global superstar Lang Lang takes to the stage tomorrow evening (Tue 2 Feb) playing works by Beethoven, Albeniz and Prokofiev. A hero in his native China and listed as one of Time Magazine's ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’, Lang has even had a Steinway named after him – and he’s only 27. Tue 9 sees the return of NCH favourite, former child prodigy and violinist extraordinaire Sarah Chang, who’s partnered by Andrew von Oeyen in sonatas for violin and piano by Brahms and Cesar Franck and a new piece written specially for her by Christopher Theofanidis. Then in March (Thur 11) it’s the turn of another glam lady, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen (apparently iTunes’ most downloaded classical musician) playing an interesting mix of Brahms, Bartok, Janacek and Beethoven. www.nch.ie

Coming Up

Greetings, reader! Back again after a brief hiatus and suddenly it's the merry month of May, with all kinds of interesting stuff on the horizon. The big one of course is Dublin Dance Festival (of which more anon) which kicks off on Fri 8 May with Bumper 2 Bumper, a silent disco in Meeting House Square hosted by Phantom djs, with dance classes and guerilla dance performances to get you into your stride. It's free but you need a ticket, available from Temple Bar info centre. Ivories are being tickled around the city as the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition gets into full swing. Preliminary rounds are at the RDS Concert Hall  (listen live online @ www.axadipc.ie) and semi-finals are at the NCH, culminating in a marathon of concerto playing on Thur 14 & Fri 15 May. The RTE NSO wind up their season with a cracking concert at the NCH on Fri 22. It's Gerhard Markson's final concert as Principal Conductor, and he pulls out all the stops for Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto, soloist Stefan Schilli, and Mahler's sublime Resurrection Symphony with the RTE Phil.

Bach to Bach

The sublime Cello Suites of JS Bach, among the most affecting solo music ever written, are performed over two concerts at the National Gallery on Sunday 15 & 22 Feb @3pm. Taking up the bow will be former NSO principal William Butt, described by the Observer as 'a worthy successor to Rostropovich' for his 2004 recording of Britten's Cello Suites. Bach buffs will be in a bit of a quandary, as both concerts clash with the Orchestra of St Cecilia's Bach Cantatas series at St Ann's Dawson St, which runs every Sunday @3.30pm until 8th March. This is the second last year of OSC's mammoth ten-year project to perform all 200 of Bach's surviving Church Cantatas, most of which had never been performed here before.