Ulster Hall, Belfast Tonight 7.45pm £8-£22 048-90239955
RTÉ NSO/PASCAL ROPHÉ
NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000
FIONNUALA MOYNIHAN (PIANO), PETER TUITE (PIANO)
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin Sun Noon Adm free 01-2225550
ANDREJA MALIR (HARP), IVEAGH ENSEMBLE
NCH Kevin Barry Room, Dublin Sun 8pm €12 01-4170000
PATRONS, PASSIONS & PERFORMERS
Queen’s University Belfast Thur Feb 23-Sun Feb 26 048-90246609
The Ulster Orchestra commissioned Ian Wilson (pictured) to write a work marking the centenary of the Titanic. The stars, the seas, a 25-minute piece for choir and orchestra "inspired by Titanicand her sister ship Olympic," is premiered in Belfast tonight. It shares the programme with Wagner's Flying DutchmanOverture, Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous VoyageOverture, Sibelius's The Swan of Tuonela, and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, with Bella Hristova as soloist; Paul Watkins conducts.
Also tonight, Pascal Rophé conducts two works by Berlioz (the Roman CarnivalOverture and the Symphonie fantastique) at the NCH in Dublin, flanking Henri Dutilleux's Van Gogh-inspired Timbres, espace, mouvementof 1978.
The Sundays at Noon series at the NCH sees the start of a series of the complete Haydn piano sonatas, performed by Fionnuala Moynihan and Peter Tuite.
The new Iveagh Ensemble, formed by current and former members of the NSO, gives its inaugural concert in Dublin on Sunday. The programme includes two octets, the greatest of all by Mendelssohn and a much later, little-known work by Bruch.
Finally, the Belfast Music Society’s international chamber music festival, Patrons, Passions Performers, features the Apollon Musagète Quartet from Poland, Susan Bullock (soprano) with Malcolm Martineau (piano), Michael Collins’s London Winds, Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko, and Ensemble Avalon.
