RTÉ Concert Orchestra January & February 2023: Dublin and Wexford

Coming up from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in January and February: 

• The Irish premiere of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony (8 February, NCH)
• A celebration of Maria Callas to mark the centenary year of her birth, with soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace, tenor Noah Stewart and – making her RTÉ CO debut – the Italo-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti (National Opera House, 21 February, NCH 22 February)
• An evening of classical favourites from the world of cartoons to kick off the centenary year of both Disney and Warner Bros (15 January, NCH)
• A welcome repeat performance of Guy Barker’s centenary tribute to Charles Mingus along with a celebration of Duke Ellington (26 January, NCH)
• Sibelius’ 5th Symphony and Gershwin’s piano concerto with Michael McHale in an evening of masterpieces under Kensho Watanabe (21 Jan, NCH)

For full listings please see below.

Classical Tunes from Classic Cartoons
Sunday 15 January 2023, 7.30pm
National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Gavin Maloney conductor
Gavan Ring tenor
Presented by Aedín Gormley, RTÉ lyric fm 

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra kicks off the centenary year of both Disney and Warner Bros with a night of classics from the cartoons!

The world of cartoons has always plundered the world of classical music to great effect, taking full advantage of its colour, expressiveness, lyricism and wit. For many people, it’s their first experience of this music and the pieces never lose those associations, wherever they are heard again! Join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra for a whirlwind tour of the most memorable examples, under its Associate Principal Conductor Gavin Maloney and with Aedín Gormley of RTÉ lyric fm as the expert guide.

From Disney’s Fantasia we’ll have Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Gavan Ring is the soloist for Rossini’s ‘Largo al Factotum’, aka Figaro Figaro, so good that it was raided by Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and lots of others, and for ‘Vesti la giubba’ from I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo, used in SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons. We’ll have Strauss’ Tales from the Vienna Woods from A Corny Concerto, Brahms’ Hungarian Dances from Pigs in a Polka, Rossini’s overture to The Thieving Magpie from Bugs Bunny and from the 1960s there’s the gem that is Henry Mancini’s theme to The Pink Panther.

Tickets: €15–€42.50
Booking 01 417 0000/www.nch.ie  
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra Performs Gershwin and Sibelius
Saturday 21 January, 7.30pm
National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Kenshso Watanabe conductor
Michael McHale piano

Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture
Gershwin Piano Concerto in F
Sibelius Symphony No. 5

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra invites you to an evening of glorious masterpieces to light up the month of January! The exhilarating colour of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture should banish any winter blues to start. Then for Gershwin’s thrilling F major piano concerto, fusing the worlds of classical, jazz and musical theatre, we welcome to centre stage leading Irish pianist Michael McHale. A favourite among the late Romantic symphonies, Sibelius’s 5th Symphony has the lot – evocative, shimmering strings, a French horn theme that has been likened to the sun parting clouds and a sweeping, swelling, irresistibly stirring finale. All this under Kensho Watanabe, one of the most exciting young conductors to come out of the United States.

Tickets: €15–€42.50
Booking 01 417 0000/www.nch.ie 
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

The Duke and Mingus
Thursday 26 January, 8pm
National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Guy Barker conductor

Giacomo Smith saxophone/clarinet
Allan Harris vocalist

Guy Barker’s extraordinary career has seen him move from jazz soloist and bandleader – working with an unbelievable rollcall of artists – to composer and one of the most sought-after arrangers in the world today. He is Associate Artist of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Irish audiences have got a flavour of their incredible concerts together in recent years with evenings of Miles Davis, soul classics and more. Now they are bringing back Guy’s centenary tribute to Charles Mingus first performed last year, this time teaming it with a first half exploring the music that shaped Mingus, all in Guy’s fantastic new orchestrations.

There are tunes from the album Mingus and Ellington made together, Money Jungle, including Ellington’s Fleurette Africaine and Caravan by Juan Tizol. (It was a fight with Tizol that led to Mingus being sacked from the Ellington band, with no hard feelings!) And from another influence on Mingus, there is Jelly Roll Morton’s take on Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, as arranged by Guy.

The Mingus suite combines music with storytelling to give a flavour of the man as well as the musician. The tunes range from the famous to the less familiar and demonstrate the breadth of his work, including Fables of Faubus, Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.

Completing this world-class evening, Tony Bennett’s favourite singer Allan Harris makes a welcome return and on saxophone and clarinet the extraordinary Giacomo Smith, one of the top names on the international jazz scene, makes his NCH debut.

Tickets: €15–€42.50
Booking 01 417 0000/www.nch.ie  
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony
Wednesday 8 February, 8pm
National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra 
Reinout Douma conductor

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is proud to present the Irish premiere of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony. This amazing reimagining of Radiohead as arranged for jazz soloists and orchestra was first conceived as a tribute album by the Noordpool Orchestra and its founder and leader Reinout Douma. Douma joins the RTE CO for the first time tonight to conduct this classy, imaginative piece featuring ‘Paranoid Android’, ‘Nude’, ‘Weird Fishes’, ‘Karma Police’, ‘Exit Music’, ‘No Surprises’, ‘15 Step’, ‘Suite: Everything in Its Right Place – Pyramid Song’, ‘You’ and ‘Creep’. The evening also features bonus Radiohead/Thom Yorke tracks ‘The Eraser’ and ‘Spectre’ and is introduced by Reinout Douma explaining how the project came about.

Jazzenzo magazine writes of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony: ‘Whether it’s the moving, and dramatically small “Exit Music” with fragile violin solo, or the unstoppable “You”, the characters of the various songs are meticulously analyzed and magnified, but not in an ironic way. The specific properties of the material are emphasized. Noordpool Orchestra, similar to the Metropole Orkest, shows what an arrangement can do with a composition . . . Here and there the atmosphere of old-fashioned swing comes to the surface, when the orchestra sounds like a big band. The majestic sound in all its dynamic turbulence can glow, while at some point the detailing is microscopic. The big gesture on the one hand, the small beckoning on the other. And conductor Reinout Douma always leads his team in the right direction.’  

And Nme.com writes:   ‘Noordpool Orchestra created an entire tribute album, Radiohead: A Jazz Symphony, back in 2012. It seems obvious, but it’s genuinely surprising how well jazz suits Radiohead’s complex time signatures and harmonies, from “15 Step” to “No Surprises”. But it’s their version of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” that stands out – a brilliant, lightly jazzy arrangement of the propulsive, pensive “In Rainbows” cut.’  

Tickets: €15–€42.50
Booking 01 417 0000/www.nch.ie 
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Maria Callas – A Centenary Celebration
National Opera House, Wexford, 21 February, 7.30pm
National Concert Hall, Wednesday 22 February, 8pm
RTÉ Concert Orchestra 
Sinéad Campbell-Wallace soprano
Noah Stewart tenor 
Nil Venditti conductor
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm 

Maria Callas captured the imagination like few other artists – for many she is the ultimate opera singer. Dubbed ‘La Divina’, hailed by Bernstein as ‘the Bible of opera’, she was revered as much for the expressive power and emotional truthfulness of her performances as for her voice itself.

In the centenary year of her birth, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra pays tribute with stunning soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace and a glorious selection of arias including Casta Diva, O mio babbino Caro,  Ebben? … Ne andrò lontana (immortalised in Jean-Jaques Beineix’ 1981 film Diva), the Habanera from Carmen and of course Vissi d’arte.

Wonderful American tenor Noah Stewart joins her for duets including the Brindisi from La traviata and the Act III finale of Tosca. Noah also takes centre stage for Nessun Dorma and the RTE CO plays orchestral favourites from the world of opera including the Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana.

All this under vibrant Italo-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti, making her RTE Concert Orchestra debut.

A real treat for opera lovers, all presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm.

Wexford
Tickets: €20–€40
Booking: www.nationaloperahouse.ie 
Presented by the National Opera House

Dublin
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Booking 01 417 0000/www.nch.ie  
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra