Gatsby 100, nights of ELO, Oscars, Bowie and Beatles, Radiohead Jazz, John O’Conor & more – RTÉ Concert Orchestra February to April
One hundred years to the day from the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Guy Barker mark the occasion with a night of Jazz Age classics (10 April, NCH). There’s a Beatles night featuring Mark McGann (3 April, The Helix) and a David Bowie night featuring members of Bowie’s own band (2 March, 3Arena), an Oscars night (26 February, NCH) and a celebration of Jeff Lynne’s ELO (13 March, NCH).
John O’Conor joins the RTÉ CO for the Beethoven piano concerto that launched his international career back in 1973 (6 March, NCH) and having given the Irish premiere of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony in 2023, the RTÉ CO brings back this incredible reimagining of Radiohead as arranged for jazz soloists and orchestra (20 March, NCH).
Full information below. Also below please see an amended listing for our 25 January concert at the NCH. Conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm is indisposed and has had to withdraw. Ukrainian conductor Margaryta Grynyvetska will conduct the programme, in what will be her Irish debut.
Tchaikovsky and Bruch
Saturday 25 January, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Margaryta Grynyvetska conductor
Rosanne Philippens violin
Brahms Tragic Overture
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’
An evening of famous romantic classics with two exciting young artists joining the RTÉ Concert Orchestra for the first time: Ukrainian conductor Margaryta Grynyvetska, who made her debut as a conductor at the age of 15 and is tonight making her Irish debut, and Dutch star violinist Rosanne Philippens.
Philippens has said: ‘My aim in a concert hall (or in any other place where music is heard), is to arouse feelings of togetherness. This is what makes music so essential: that wordless power of expression that brings people together.’
The concert begins with Brahms’ powerful and dramatic Tragic Overture, and ends with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, one of the most profoundly emotional of all symphonies. First performed under the composer himself just nine days before his death, he called the ‘Pathétique’ ‘the best thing I ever composed or shall compose’.
Bruch’s first violin concerto became so famous that it overshadowed the two he wrote after, to his own immense frustration. He wrote about fending off approaches from violinists wanting to play it: ‘I have now become rude; and have told them: ‘I cannot listen to this concerto any more – did I perhaps write just this one? Go away and once and for all play the other concertos, which are just as good, if not better.’ However good the others are, nothing has ever replaced Bruch’s first in audiences’ affections, and that’s the one with which Rosanne Philippens makes her RTÉ Concert Orchestra debut.
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Tuesday 11 February, 7.30pm, National Opera House, Wexford
Thursday 13 February, 7.30pm, University Concert Hall, Limerick
Saturday 15 February, 8pm, National Concert Hall, Dublin
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Stephen Bell conductor
Killian Donnelly and Juliette Crosbie vocalists
Immerse yourself in the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conductor Stephen Bell and acclaimed West End vocalists Killian Donnelly and Juliette Crosbie.
For over five decades, Webber’s unforgettable melodies have enchanted audiences across the globe, earning him Tony Awards, Grammys, and an Academy Award®. This programme, being performed in Wexford, Limerick and Dublin, features famous songs including Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina , Any Dream Will Do, I Don’t Know How to Love Him, Memory, Music of the Night, Love Changes Everything and All I Ask of You, as well as orchestral numbers including the Phantom Suite and Jellicle Ball.
Join us to celebrate one of the most enduring figures in musical theatre for over five decades.
Programme
Jellicle Ball (Cats)
Memory (Cats)
Love Changes Everything (Aspects of Love)
Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina (Evita)
Till I Hear You Sing (Love Never Dies)
The Last Man in My Life (Tell Me on a Sunday)
Symphonic Suite (The Phantom of the Opera)
Entr’acte (Sunset Boulevard)
As If We Never Said Goodbye (Sunset Boulevard)
No Matter What (Whistle Down the Wind)
Close Every Door (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
Any Dream Will Do (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
All the Love I Have (The Beautiful Game)
I Don’t Know how to Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar)
The Music of the Night (The Phantom of the Opera)
Think of Me (The Phantom of the Opera)
All I Ask of You (The Phantom of the Opera)
Devised by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber® is presented by arrangement with The Really Useful Group Limited. Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Tickets
Wexford: €22–€44 (returns only)
Limerick: €20–€35
Dublin: €15–€42.50 (returns only)
A Night at the Oscars
Wednesday 26 February, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Stephen Bell conductor
Katie Birtill vocalist
Presented by RTÉ’s Seán Rocks
Join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conductor Stephen Bell, vocalist Katie Bertil and presenter Seán Rocks for an evening of Hollywood’s most celebrated music, from films that have received Academy Awards® or nominations. Revel in the magic of evergreen themes alongside recent favourites that have captured hearts and critical acclaim alike.
With Gladiator II fresh in the memory, the orchestra will revisit the power of Hans Zimmer’s unforgettable score to the original Gladiator, the Best Picture-winning epic that captured hearts with its haunting melodies and rousing themes. Zimmer’s score to Pirates of the Caribbean also features.
It will be no surprise that John Williams is strongly represented, with some of the thrilling, stirring themes that have added so much to the films he has scored. Tonight’s programme has music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
Vocalist Katie Birtill joins the RTÉ CO for classic songs old and new, from right back to As Time Goes By and right up to Shallow, with other showstoppers Secret Love, The Way We Were, Take My Breath Away and My Heart Will Go On.
Orchestral themes on the programme likewise span several decades, with the earliest the Robin Hood March by Korngold and the most recent the Bathroom Dance Scene from Jónsdóttir’s Joker score. Along the way there’s Out of Africa by John Barry, Gabriel’s Oboe by Morricone, Beauty and the Beast by Alan Menken and The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore.
Get red-carpet ready and be swept away by the scores that made history, just days before the Academy Awards® ceremony scheduled for the following week. Audiences are encouraged to dress up as their favourite film character – a photographer will be on hand to capture the best looks!
Programme
Williams Raiders March (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
Horner My Heart Will Go On (Titanic)
Zimmer Dead Man’s Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Jónsdóttir Bathroom Dance Scene (Joker)
Korngold Robin Hood March
Hamlisch The Way We Were
Barry Out of Africa
Williams Flying Theme (E.T.)
Moroder/Whitlock Take My Breath Away (Top Gun)
Williams Jurassic Park
Morricone Gabriel’s Oboe (The Mission)
Hupfeld As Time Goes By (Casablanca)
Menken Beauty and the Beast
Shore The Lord of the Rings
Fain Secret Love (Calamity Jane)
Williams Across the Stars (Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones)
Gaga/Wyatt/Rossomando/Ronson Shallow (A Star Is Born)
Zimmer Gladiator
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Tickets: €15–€42.50
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra Perform the Songs of David Bowie
David Brophy conductor
Sunday 2 March, 3Arena
Doors 6.30pm | Show starts 8pm
After two remarkable sold-out shows at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre last year, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra returns to a bigger stage to perform the Songs of David Bowie.
The show is presented by Singular Artists in association with the David Bowie Festival and adapted from the 2021 recording for RTÉ One television, Bowie: Starman – with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. It features specially commissioned arrangements of classics like Life on Mars, Heroes, Starman, Changes and Space Oddity as orchestra and artists combine to salute one of the most imaginative, influential and iconic musicians of our times.
Join Gerry Leonard as Musical Director, David Bowie’s alumni Sterling Campbell, Mark Plati and Gail Ann Dorsey, featuring special guests Faye O’Rourke (Soda Blonde), Dana Masters, Duke Special and Shops as they join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and conductor David Brophy for a special night.
Tickets: from €59
Presented by Singular Artists in association with the David Bowie Festival
Beethoven & Brahms
Thursday 6 March, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Gavin Maloney conductor
John O’Conor piano
Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Overture
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major
Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor
Join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra for an evening of Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner, featuring internationally renowned pianist John O’Conor and conducted by Gavin Maloney.
Having joined the RTÉ CO in 2023 to perform Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto 3 to a packed NCH, John O’Conor joins forces with the orchestra again for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Back in 1973, John O’Conor made headlines when he was unanimously awarded 1st Prize at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, performing this same concerto. This launched a career that has brought him all around the world over the past half-century. The connection with Beethoven flourished too, with CD Review commenting that he ‘by now should be recognised as the world’s premier Beethoven interpreter’; his recent recordings of the complete Beethoven piano concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra and Andreas Delfs have also been greeted with acclaim.
Also featured in the programme are Wagner’s majestic overture from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, often regarded as Brahms’ answer to Beethoven’s legacy.
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
It’s a Livin’ Thing: The Music of Jeff Lynne’s ELO
Thursday 13 March, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Richard Balcombe conductor
Stuart Matthew Price and Patrick Smyth vocalists
Graham Bickley, Daniel Fletcher, Alex Turney and Heather Lundstedt backing vocalists
ELO classic hits as you’ve never heard them before!
Come out of the blue and enjoy the ultimate Electronic Light Orchestra hits performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under the baton of Richard Balcombe.
During ELO’s original 13-year period of active recording and touring, they sold over 50 million records worldwide. Since then, the band had great success as Part II and The Orchestra before Jeff Lynne’s ELO re-formed in 2014. In 2015, Jeff Lynne’s ELO played at the Grammy Awards for the first time, performing a medley of Evil Woman, which will be performed in this concert by the RTÉ CO, and Mr Blue Sky with Ed Sheeran who introduced Lynne and the ELO as ‘a man and a band that I love’.
Other hits to feature in this special night are All Over the World, Livin’ Thing, Roll over Beethoven, Telephone Line and Sweet Talkin’ Woman. Deep cuts include Beatles-inspired The Diary of Horace Wimp and the playful blend of rock and opera, Rockaria: ‘She’s sweet on Wagner, I think she’d die for Beethoven/She loves the way Puccini lays down a tune, and Verdi’s always creeping from her room.’
From chart-topping anthems to hidden gems, join the RTÉ CO for a celebration of Jeff Lynne’s ELO legacy, blending rock, pop and classical influences.
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony
Thursday 20 March, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Reinout Douma conductor
Having given the Irish premiere of Radiohead, A Jazz Symphony in 2023, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra brings back this incredible reimagining of Radiohead as arranged for jazz soloists and orchestra.
This Radiohead jazz creation was first conceived as a tribute album by the Noordpool Orchestra and its founder and leader Reinout Douma, who joins the RTÉ CO again to conduct this imaginative programme 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, a minimalist masterpiece, and Spectre, an existential meditation.
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.’
Taking full advantage of Radiohead’s already formatively experimental works, featuring 7/8 time signatures and cascading arpeggios, the RTÉ CO bring the arrangements to life; as Reinout said in The Irish Times, ‘that was actually the idea: what can an orchestra do with these songs?’
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
The Two of Us – The Story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Beatles
Thursday 3 April, 7.30pm, The Helix
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
David Brophy conductor
Mark McGann, Joe Stilgoe and Claire Martin vocalists
A must-see for Beatles fans.
Iconic Lennon-McCartney hits including Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love, Yesterday, Strawberry Fields Forever and more brought to life by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and conductor David Brophy.
Telling the back-story of this legendary song-writing duo is Liverpudlian actor/vocalist Mark McGann, along with two internationally acclaimed vocalists, Claire Martin and Joe Stilgoe.
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Gatsby 100
Thursday 10 April, 8pm, National Concert Hall
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Guy Barker conductor
Tommy Blaize, Vanessa Haynes and Joe Stilgoe vocalists
Giacomo Smith clarinet/saxophone
Get your jazz hands at the ready with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra under the extraordinary Guy Barker for a celebration of 100 years of Gatsby.
The date, 10 April 2025, marks the exact centenary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is taking any excuse to indulge in the glamour of the Jazz Age with musical treasures of the 1920s, including Sing Sing Sing, The Joint is Jumpin’ and The Charleston.
A trumpet player with the late Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli, RTÉ CO Associate Artist Guy Barker is now one of the world’s most in-demand arrangers. He created the knockout orchestrations in this programme, brought to life by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Big Band and special guests. Tommy Blaize of Strictly Come Dancing, Vanessa Haynes and Joe Stilgoe, along with virtuoso Giacomo Smith on clarinet and saxophone, will transport you to the world of the Roaring Twenties.
Anyone who has seen Guy Barker in action with the RTÉ CO – including for their dazzling New Year’s Eve Gatsby Extravaganza in 2023 – will know the extraordinary calibre of performance and huge enjoyment to expect.
Tickets: €15–€42.50
Presented by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
PR Executive: Angela Rohan