Classical music highlights for week ending January 7th

SUNDAY 31

New Year's Eve Viennese Gala NCH, Dublin 10pm  €34.50-€69.50/€31-€62.50 nch.ie RTÉ's New Year's Eve orchestral concerts, originally the domain of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, spent nearly two decades in the hands of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. The NSO takes up duty again this year, signalling a change of repertoire from West End (last year's soloist was Ramin Karimloo) to Vienna, with vocal contributions from Ireland's Claudia Boyle and American tenor Charles Castronovo. The ticket price includes music in the foyer before and after the concert and a "complimentary glass of bubbly". Neil Thomson conducts. MD

MONDAY 1

New Year Celebration  NCH, Dublin 3.30pm €24.50-€49.50/€22-€44.50 nch.ie Having just rung out the old year, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is back on stage at the National Concert Hall to ring in the new one, again with the sounds of Viennese waltzes and arias filling the air. Soprano Claudia Boyle is the soloist. George Hamilton is doing the honours as presenter. And Neil Thomson conducts. MD

FRIDAY 5

RTÉ NSO/Alexander Shelley NCH, Dublin 7.30pm €15-€35/€13-€31 nch.ie The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra's first subscription concert of the New Year offers the kind of fare that used to be presented early in July to mark Independence Day. Alexander Shelley conducts pieces by Duke Ellington (Three Black Kings), George Gershwin (the Piano Concerto with Peter Jablonski and An American in Paris), Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story Overture and Prelude, Fugue and Riffs with John Finucane as clarinet soloist), and Scott Joplin (Maple Leaf Rag). MD