Malcolm Proud - Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin Sun Noon Adm free 01-2225550. Maria McGarry - Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo Wed 8pm 15 094-9023733

There’s never any shortage of Christmas musical fare in the middle of December. The challenge is always to find interesting concerts that are not snowed under with Christmas spirit. Alleviation from the seasonal overload is to be had this week from Malcolm Proud in the Hugh Lane Gallery’s Sundays at Noon series, and from pianist Maria McGarry (above) at the Linenhall Arts Centre on Wednesday.

Proud’s concert is the final instalment in his touring programme of Bach’s six partitas for keyboard, with musicologist David Ledbetter introducing the pieces. And McGarry, who’s also been touring, plays a programme of Bach, Granados, and Schumann that she will be taking to Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery on January 15th.