Pat O’Kelly   Despite visiting Leipzig last year during its annual Bach Festival, my musical encounters centred not on Johann Sebastian but on Claudio Monteverdi, as the event also celebrated the Italian master’s 450th anniversary through his proto-opera Orfeo and magnificent Vespers of the Blessed Virgin. The St Nicholas Lutheran Church provided the resplendent ecumenical…

Pat O’Kelly   I was regaled at the National Concert Hall recently by two award-winning young pianists – Alexander Bernstein and Fiachra Garvey, both former pupils of John O’Conor at the RIAM. Accompanied with spontaneous aplomb by the RTÉ NSO, they conveyed the wit and charm of Francis Poulenc’s effervescent Concerto for Two Pianos written…

Pat O’Kelly   With conductor Fergus Sheil active as both artistic director of Wide Open Opera and Opera Theatre Company, it seemed a natural progression both companies would merge. And so they did. Formed last year, with generous beneficence from the Arts Council, the new company was launched under the banner of Irish National Opera.…

Pat O’Kelly   Next week the RTÉ NSO celebrates its 70th birthday with its concert at the NCH on Friday, February 16. Directed by former principal conductor Gerhard Markson, music by Wagner, Prokofiev and Deirdre Gribben brings soprano Orla Boylan and pianist Finghin Collins as soloists. But there had been a Radio Éireann Orchestra prior…

Pat O’Kelly   Among a number of anniversaries, this year commemorates two distinct and unrelated centenaries – Estonian Independence and the birth of the US composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. Both events are being highlighted at the National Concert Hall next week through the return of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) on January 31 and the…

Pat O’Kelly   As well as his very active performing career at home and abroad, the Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins is also artistic director of two important events occurring outside the capital. The first is the New Ross Piano Festival, which since its foundation in 2006 takes place in late September and is centred on…

Pat O’Kelly Since 2012 the National Concert Hall has presented an annual Lifetime Achievement Award to Irish musicians of international renown. Not confined to what can be loosely termed ‘classical artists’, the award spreads its wings across a broader spectrum of musical genres. James Galway, Veronica Dunne, Paul Brady and the Vanbrugh Quartet followed the…

Pat O’Kelly   Thanks to the hospitality of ambassador Marie-Claude Meylan, the Swiss Embassy was the convivial venue for a recently launched CD – Chopin Recital – featuring Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins. On the Swiss classical label Claves, for which Collins has already recorded excellent Schumann albums, the new disc, 50-1719, is a cooperation with…

Pat O’Kelly   History will be made this weekend with Handel’s Messiah heard for the first time in the Basilica at Knock on Saturday evening. Under Proinnsías Ó Duinn, the occasion commemorates the 275th anniversary of the oratorio’s première in Neal’s Musick Hall in Dublin’s Fishamble Street. The current event unites Our Lady’s Choral Society,…

Pat O’ Kelly   As Wexford Festival aficionados will be enjoying the final performances of unfamiliar works by Cherubini, Foroni and Alfano at the National Opera House this weekend, the National Concert Hall is the setting, on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday next, for something less esoteric – Lyric Opera’s production of Verdi’s La Traviata. Through…