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ROSSINI The Barber of Seville Overture VERDI La traviata, Prelude to Act III VERDI ‘Ah, la paterna mano’ from Macbeth VERDI ‘O mio rimorso’ from La traviata PUCCINI Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) PUCCINI ‘Che gelida manina’ from La bohème MASCAGNI Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo

EDUARDO DI CAPUA O Sole Mio

LEONCAVALLO Mattinata DE CURTIS Torna a Surriento TOSTI L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra CARDILLO Core ’ngrato

Prionnsías Ó Duinn conductor Gavan Ring tenor Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm

FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2020, 7pm NATIONAL CONCERT HALL

1 Gioachino Rossini 1792-1868

The Barber of Seville Overture

Rossini’s 39 operas transformed Italian operatic life during the first half of the 19th century, setting the standard for much of what was to follow throughout Europe. If his speed in composing, his facility for memorable melodies, his impish sense of humour and his occasional disregard for dramatic fidelity did not always endear him to critics, audiences adored him for it.

The Barber of Seville survived a calamitous first night in Rome in 1816 when supporters of Rossini’s elder rival Giovanni Paisiello disrupted the performance, outraged that the younger man had set Beaumarchais’ play to music as their hero had done in 1782. The following night, a less partisan audience greeted it as a triumph.

Containing no themes found in the opera, the Overture nonetheless seems more in keeping with the upstairs-downstairs shenanigans that follow than it had three years earlier when Rossini used it to preface the tragedy Aureliano in Palmira and again in 1815 for the historical drama Elizabeth, Queen of England. Colourful, elegant and excitable, it is an exhilarating introduction to the deliciously farcical goings-on in the household of the lascivious Count Almaviva.

2 Giuseppe Verdi 1813-1901

Prelude to Act III of La traviata

With a pronounced appetite for high drama and intense emotions, Verdi was one of the operatic titans of the 19th century. Composed in 1853, La traviata (‘The Fallen Woman’) is his most intimate opera. Originally titled Amore e morte (‘Love and Death’), Verdi’s setting of the younger Alexandre Dumas’ novel and subsequent play, La dame aux camélias (a fictionalised account of an episode in the author’s own life), remains the composer’s most popular opera, its searing emotion matched by music of luxuriously poignant romance and pointed drama.

A story of love thwarted by family opposition, in bald narrative terms it can best be described as a tear-jerker. When the well-to-do Alfredo declares his love for the tuberculosis-stricken courtesan Violetta, their relationship meets with vehement disapproval from his father. The lovers buckle under the relentless pressure and separate, Alfredo too late realising his mistake. Their eventual reunion comes just moments before Violetta succumbs to her illness and dies in Alfredo’s arms.

The Prelude to Act III features some of Verdi’s most sublimely beautiful and exquisitely painful music. It speaks of love, but fleetingly so, shimmering, tenuously fragile strings in its lighter moments recalling happier times even as they become subsumed by weeping anticipation of the tragedy that is yet to come.

3 Giuseppe Verdi ‘Ah, la paterna mano’ from Macbeth

Few composers translated Shakespeare’s plays to opera as vividly or as successfully as Verdi. Among his masterpieces stand Otello and Falstaff, his last two works for the theatre. Forty years before the earliest of those, in 1847, his first engagement with the Stratford playwright produced a suitably dramatic take on ‘the Scottish play’, Macbeth.

On the eve of the decisive battle at Dunsinane, the nobleman Macduff, ‘from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’, discoverer of the slain body of King Duncan and now mourning his murdered wife and children, laments his failure to protect them in ‘Ah, la paterna mano’ (‘Ah, the paternal hand’) and vows vengeance on the tyrant Macbeth.

‘Ah, la paterna mano’

Ah, la paterna mano Alas, a father’s hand was not there Non vi fu scudo, o cari, to shield you, my dear ones, Dai perfidi sicari from the treacherous assassins Che a morte vi ferir! who put you to death. E me fuggiasco, occulto, And in vain you called on me, Voi chiamavate invano, a fugitive, in hiding, Coll’ultimo singulto, with your last gasp, Coll’ultimo respir. with your last breath. Trammi al tiranno in faccia, Lord, bring me face to face Signore! e s’ei mi sfugge, with this tyrant, and if he escapes me Possa a colui le braccia let your merciful arms Del tuo perdono aprir. open to him.

4 Giuseppe Verdi ‘O mio rimorso!’ from La traviata

Smitten by the free-spirited society courtesan Violetta – the ‘fallen woman’ of the opera’s title – Alfredo has given little thought to the consequences of his affair for his relationship with his disapproving father, his damaged social standing or even for his fatally ailing, tuberculosis-stricken lover.

Discovering that Violetta has been selling her belongings to help finance their hedonistic lifestyle, Alfredo is suddenly filled with shame and remorse. In one of opera’s great apologias, ‘O mio rimorso!’, he resolves to change his ways and do whatever needs to be done to set things right.

‘O mio rimorso’

O mio rimorso! O infamia Oh, my remorse! Oh, disgrace! e vissi in tale errore? And I lived so mistaken! Ma il turpe sogno a frangere But the truth, like a flash, il ver mi balenò. Has broken my base sleep! Per poco in seno acquétati, For a little while be calm in my breast, o grido dell’onore; Oh, cry of honour; M’avrai securo vindice; In me you shall have a sure avenger; quest’onta laverò. I shall wash away this infamy. Oh mio rossor! Oh infamia! Oh, shame! Oh, disgrace! Ah, sì, quest'onta laverò. Ah, yes, I shall wash away this infamy!

5 Giacomo Puccini 1858-1924

Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums)

Caught in the long shadows of two operatic titans of the 19th century, Verdi and Wagner, Puccini’s lyrical gifts established him as the leading opera composer of his age and many of his 10 operas remain in the repertoire nearly a century after his death. Although theatrical success overshadowed his achievements in other musical forms, his sublime and moving elegy Crisantemi (‘Chrysanthemums’), originally composed in 1890 for string quartet and later re-fashioned for string orchestra, is regularly heard in the concert hall.

Composed in one night and prompted by the death of Puccini’s friend, the Duke of Aosta, who had briefly reigned as the king of Spain from 1870-73, it is a compact, concentrated work built around two mournful themes and imbued with a sincere sense of anguished grieving, its title acknowledging the flower’s traditional association in Italy with funerals. Later, Puccini would pilfer the work for a key moment in his opera Manon Lescaut.

6 Giacomo Puccini ‘Che gelida manina’ from La bohème

Depicting the love lives of a group of impoverished students in the bohemian Paris of the 1830s, La bohème can safely lay claim to being the finest lyric opera ever written. First heard in Turin in 1896, it quickly became a firm favourite with audiences.

At its centre is the doomed love affair between the struggling poet Rodolfo and the seamstress Mimì, whose life is cut tragically short by consumption. It prompted from Puccini one of his finest scores, a masterly combination of delicacy and drama, light-hearted brio and coruscating emotional power.

With its famous high C ringing out on the word ‘hope’ (a note Puccini never wrote but which audiences now expect every bit as fervently as tenors fear it) ‘Che gelida manina’ (‘Your tiny hand is frozen’) is one of Bohème’s stand-out arias, a tender but titanic declaration of love whose purity and sincerity is mirrored by music of incomparably fragile beauty.

‘Che gelida manina’

Che gelida manina, Your tiny hand is frozen! se la lasci riscaldar. Let me warm it into life. Cercar che giova? Our search is useless; Al buio non si trova. In darkness all is hidden.

Ma per fortuna Ere long the light é una notte di luna, of the moon shall aid us, e qui la luna Yes, in the moonlight l’abbiamo vicina. our search let us continue.

Aspetti, signorina, So listen, pretty maiden, le dirò con due parole while I tell you in a moment chi son, chi son, e che faccio, Just who I am, what I do, come vivo. Vuole? and how I live. Shall I?

7 Chi son? Chi son? Sono un poeta. I am, I am, I am a poet. Che cosa faccio? Scrivo. What’s my employment? Writing! E come vivo? Vivo. Is that a living? Hardly!

In povertà mia lieta I’ve wit tho’ wealth be wanting; scialo da gran signore Ladies of rank and fashion rime ed inni d’amore. all inspire me with passion.

Per sogni e per chimere In dreams and fond illusions e per castelli in aria, or castles in the air. l’anima ho milionaria. Richer is none on earth than I!

Talor dal mio forziere Bright eyes as yours, believe me, ruban tutti i gioelli Steal my priceless jewels due ladri, gli occhi belli. In fancy’s storehouse cherish’d.

V’entrar con voi pur ora, Your roguish eyes have robb’d me, ed i miei sogni usati Of all my dreams bereft me, e i bei sogni miei, dreams that are fair yet fleeting. tosto si dileguar! Fled are my truant fancies,

Ma il furto non m’accora, Regrets I do not cherish. poiché, poiché v’ha preso stanza For now life’s rosy morn is breaking, la dolce speranza! now golden love is waking!

Or che mi conoscete, Now that I’ve told my story, parlate voi, deh! pray tell me yours, too, Parlate. Chi siete? tell me frankly, who are you? Vi piaccia dir! Say will you tell?

8 Pietro Mascagni 1863-1945

Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana

Mascagni’s first opera extolling the virtues (and vices) of rustic chivalry caused something of a sensation at its 1890 premiere. Today it is more usually seen in tandem with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci in a pairing familiarly known as Cav/Pav, seldom having the spotlight to itself. Its most popular moment is the dreamy Intermezzo that occurs in a lull between jealous, love-locked rivalries to offer a moment of calm before the opera’s murderous final scene. Its blend of pastoral nostalgia and pent-up emotion has seen it used in countless television commercials and, conspicuously, in the opening scene of Martin Scorsese’s 1980 boxing film Raging Bull and as the elegiac coda at the conclusion of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy.

9 Eduardo Di Capua 1865-1917

O Sole Mio

Proof that opera (let alone the devil) doesn’t always have the best tunes comes courtesy of the euphoric Neapolitan song O Sole Mio (‘My Sunshine’). Attributed to Eduardo di Capua (although it later transpired that he had purchased the melody from Alfredo Mazzucchi) and set to lyrics by Giovanni Capurro, its invocation of the beauty and romance of Italy in an instantly unforgettable melody has long been a lure for the tenor voice to which it is perfectly suited.

The tune attracted new audiences when Elvis Presley borrowed it for his chart-topping It’s Now or Never and achieved unexpected popularity when the Three Tenors – Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras – included it as an encore in their ground-breaking concert on the eve of the 1990 football World Cup final.

10 O Sole Mio

Che bella cosa na jurnata ’e sole, What a beautiful thing is a sunny day! n’aria serena doppo na tempesta! The air is serene after a storm, Pe’ ll’aria fresca pare già na festa… The air is so fresh that it already feels like a celebration. Che bella cosa na jurnata ’e sole. What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!

Ma n’atu sole cchiù bello, oi ne’, But another sun, even more beauteous, oh my sweetheart, ’o sole mio sta nfronte a te! My own sun, shines from your face! ’o sole, ’o sole mio This sun, my own sun, sta nfronte a te, sta nfronte a te! Shines from your face; It shines from your face!

Lùceno ’e llastre d’a fenesta toia; Your window panes shine; ’na lavannara canta e se ne vanta A laundress is singing and boasting about it; e pe’ tramente torce, spanne e canta, And while she’s wringing the clothes, hanging them up to dry, and singing, lùceno ’e llastre d’a fenesta toia. Your window panes shine.

Quanno fa notte e ’o sole se ne scenne, When night comes and the sun has gone down, me vene quasi ’na malincunia; I almost start feeling melancholy; sotto ’a fenesta toia restarria I’d stay below your window quanno fa notte e ’o sole se ne scenne. When night comes and the sun has gone down.

11 Ruggero Leoncavallo 1857-1919

Mattinata

If Pagliacci, an emotion-filled portrait of a lovestruck and tortured actor, is Leoncavallo’s best-remembered opera, the charming Mattinata (‘Morning’) can lay claim to being his most popular and abiding song. Composed in 1904 to Leoncavallo’s own lyrics, it was the first song to be recorded by the Gramophone Company (later to become EMI) when the composer accompanied its dedicatee, Enrico Caruso, on the piano. A joyful welcome to the new beginnings of a new day, it is cut from a very different cloth to Pagliacci. A simple but ardent serenade to a still sleeping beloved, it extols the virtues of the soft-hued dawning day and encourages the object of the singer’s affection to wake and welcome him in.

Mattinata L’aurora di bianco vestita The dawn, dressed in white, Già l’uscio dischiude al gran sol; has already opened the door to the sun, Di già con le rosee sue dita and caresses the flowers with its pink Carezza de’ fiori lo stuol! fingers. Commosso da un fremito arcano A mysterious trembling seems to Intorno il creato già par; disturb all nature. E tu non-ti desti, ed invano And yet you will not get up, and vainly Mi sto qui dolente a cantar. I stand here sadly singing. Metti anche tu la veste bianca Dress yourself also in white, E schiudi l’uscio al tuo cantor! and open the door to your serenader! Ove non-sei la luce manca; Where you are not, there is no light; Ove tu sei nasce l’amor. where you are, love is born. Ove non-sei la luce manca; Where you are not, there is no light; Ove tu sei nasce l’amor. where you are, love is born. 12 Ernesto De Curtis 1875-1937

Torna a Surriento

Naples-born Ernesto De Curtis was a great-grandson of the composer Salvatore Mercadante and brother of the painter and poet Giambattista De Curtis, who provided the lyrics for his signature song, Torna a Surriento (‘Come back to Sorrento’).

Incongruously, so legend has it, its origins lie in the fraught local politics of its titular Mediterranean resort, long desperately in need of a modern sewage system. When Italy’s then Prime Minister holidayed in the town in 1902, its Lord Mayor asked De Curtis to write a song celebrating the town’s esteemed guest. He duly responded with a soaring, heartfelt homage to the beauty of Sorrento’s setting while imploring its distinguished visitor to return. (Spoiling a good yarn, recent research has poured water on the notion, placing its date of composition some eight years earlier.)

Torna a Surriento Vide ‘o mare quant’è bello, Look at the sea, how beautiful it is, spira tantu sentimento, it inspires so many emotions, Comme tu a chi tieni mente, like you do with the people you look at, Ca scetato ‘o fai sunnà. who you make to dream while they are still awake.

Guarda gua’ chistu ciardino; Look at this garden Siente, sie’ sti ciur’ arance: and the scent of these oranges, Nu prufumo accussi fino such a fine perfume, Dinto ‘o core se ne va… it goes straight into your heart,

13 E tu dice: “I’ parto, addio!” And you say: “I am leaving, goodbye”. T’alluntane da stu core… You go away from this heart of mine, Da sta terra del l’ammore… away from this land of love, Tieni ‘o core ‘e nun turnà? And you have the heart not to come back.

Ma nun me lassà, But do not go away, Nun darme stu turmiento! do not give me this pain. Torna a Surriento, Come back to Surriento, Famme campà! let me live!

Vid’o mare de Surriento, Look at the sea of Surriento, che tesoro tene nfunno: what a treasure it is! chi ha girato tutto ’o munno Even who has travelled all over the world, nun l’ha visto comme’a cà. he has never seen a sea like this one.

Vide attuorno sti Sirene, Look at these mermaids ca te guardano ncantate, that stare, amazed, at you, e te vonno tantu bene… that love you so much. Te vulessero vasà. They would like to kiss you,

E tu dice: "I’ parto, addio!" And you say: “I am leaving, goodbye”. T’alluntane da stu core You go away from my heart, Da sta terra de l’ammore away from the land of love, Tiene ’o core ’e nun turnà? And you have the heart not to come back.

Ma nun me lassà, But please do not go away, Nun darme stu turmiento! do not give me this pain. Torna a Surriento, Come back to Surriento, Famme campà! let me live!

14 Francesco Paolo Tosti 1846-1916

L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra

A favourite item in the repertoires of Enrico Caruso, Jussi Björling and Mario Lanza, Paolo Tosti’s L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra (‘Dawn divides the light from the shadows’) is a Neapolitan song of almost singular intensity. A lovelorn inamorato greets the prospect of a day just beginning without his adored – impervious, it would seem, to his charms, or perhaps now lost by him to another, or to death – in a decidedly fatalistic frame of mind. Tosti treats the lyrics by Gabriele D’Annuzio at face value, indulging their romantic affectation in preferring death to a life alone with music of surging, dark-hued passion as intensely felt and expressed as any self-respecting, heart-on-sleeve cri de cœur should be.

L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra L’alba sepàra dalla luce l’ombra, The dawn divides the darkness from light, E la mia voluttà dal mio desire. And my sensual pleasure from my desire, O dolce stelle, è l’ora di morire. O sweet stars, it is the hour of death. Un più divino amor dal ciel vi sgombra. A love more holy clears you from the skies.

Pupille ardenti, O voi senza ritorno Gleaming eyes, O you who’ll ne’er return, Stelle tristi, spegnetevi incorrotte! Sad stars, snuff out your uncorrupted light! Morir debbo. Veder non voglio il giorno, I must die, I do not want to see the day, Per amor del mio sogno e della notte. For love of my own dream and of the night.

Chiudimi, Envelop me, O Notte, nel tuo sen materno, O Night, in your maternal breast, Mentre la terra pallida s’irrora. While the pale earth bathes itself in dew; Ma che dal sangue mio nasca l'aurora But let the dawn rise from my blood E dal sogno mio breve il sole eterno! And from my brief dream the eternal sun! E dal sogno mio breve il sole eterno! And from my brief dream the eternal sun!

15 Salvatore Cardillo 1874-1947

Core ’ngrato

Composed in 1911 while in self-imposed exile in America, native Neapolitan Salvatore Cardillo’s Core ’ngrato (‘Ungrateful Heart’) is one of Naples’ greatest songs, blending the characteristic grandeur and intensity of Italian opera with the yearning lyricism of the ancient city’s song tradition. A seething declaration of spurned love with feverishly heightened lyrics by the now forgotten Riccardo Cordiferro, it carries itself with all the theatrical urgency of an aria for an opera yet to be written.

Core ’ngrato Ungrateful Heart Catarì, Catarì, Catarì, Catarì Pecchè me dice sti parole amare, Why do you say these bitter words to me? Pecchè me parle e ‘o core Why do you speak and my heart Me turmiente Catari? torments me, Catarì?

Nun te scurdà ca t’aggio date Don’t forget that I’ve given you ‘o core, Catarì my heart, Catarì Nun te scurdà! Don’t forget it!

Catarì, Catarì, che vene a dicere Catarì, Catarì, what do you mean by Stu parlà, che me dà spaseme? these words, that upset me? Tu nun ‘nce pienze a stu dulore mio You don’t think about my pain Tu nun ‘nce pienze tu nun te ne cure You don’t think! You don’t care!

16 Core, core ‘ngrato Heart, ungrateful heart T’aie pigliato 'a vita mia You’ve stolen my life Tutt’ è passato Everything’s over E nun ‘nce pienze cchiù! And you don’t think about it anymore! Catarì, Catarì, Catarì, Catarì, Tu nun ‘o saie ca ‘nfin ‘int’a ‘na chiesa you don’t know that I even went to church Io so’ trasuto e aggio priato a Dio, Catarì I entered and prayed to God, Catarì, E l’aggio ditto pure a ‘o cunfessore: and even said to the confessor, I’ sto a suffrì “I'm suffering Pe’ chella llà! for that one there!”

Sto a suffrì, I’m suffering, Sto a suffrì, nun se po’ credere, I’m suffering, you can’t believe how Sto a suffrì tutte li strazie! I’m suffering all the tortures... E ‘o cunfessore ch’è persona santa, And the Confessor who is holy person, M’ha ditto: Figlio mio, lassala sta’, said, “My son, leave her alone, lassala sta' let her be”

Core, core ‘ngrato Heart, ungrateful heart T’ aie pigliato ‘a vita mia You’ve stolen my life Tutt’ è passato Everything’s over E nun ‘nce pienze cchiù! And you don’t think about “us” anymore!

17 Proinnsías Ó Duinn conductor

At age eighteen, Proinnsías Ó Duinn was appointed Music Director of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. In 1962 he conducted his first concert with the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra. In 1963 he was contracted as Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Following a tour of South America in 1966, he was appointed Principal Conductor and Music Director of La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Ecuador.

When he returned to Ireland, he continued to give concerts with both RTÉ orchestras, the BBC and in mainland Europe. His first appointment to RTÉ was conductor of the RTÉ Singers and Vocal Adviser. In 1978 he became Principal Conductor of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, a position he held for twenty five years, during which time he conducted and recorded many national and world premieres. In 2003 he was the first Conductor Laureate to be appointed in the history of RTÉ.

18 He has held positions of Music Director and Conductor of several Opera Companies in Ireland and has conducted opera performances ranging from Pergolesi through the mainstream classical and romantic operas to Poulenc (Dialogue des Carmelites) and Britten (Turn of the Screw). He was commissioned by the RDS to make a new edition of Benedict’s Opera The Lily of Killarney, which he conducted for the RDS along with Maritana and The Bohemian Girl. He has also been a guest conductor of all the symphony and chamber orchestras in Ireland.

In 1979 he was appointed Conductor and Music Director of Our Lady’s Choral Society, a position he still retains. It has a wide ranging repertoire and its season of Messiah performances in the National Concert Hall each Christmas has become an integral part of the music life of Dublin.

Since 2001 he returns each year to conduct the Birthday Celebration performance of the Messiah in Halle, in the Handel Concert Hall, with an international choir and the Staatskapelle Halle.

Formerly a cellist, Ó Duinn is a composer and arranger of music in many genres, ranging from chamber music to symphonic, choral and musicals.

19 Gavan Ring tenor

Hailing from Cahersiveen in County Kerry, Irish tenor Dr Gavan Ring studied at the Schola Cantorum at St Finian’s College, Mullingar before reading education and music at Dublin City University. An alumnus of the National Opera Studio in London, Gavan is also the first opera singer and the youngest graduate to complete doctoral studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Gavan’s ground-breaking doctoral research on Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish language opera Eithne led to the work's first performance in 107 years. Concert highlights include performances with the London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms and Lucerne Festival under Sir Simon Rattle, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Royal Festival Hall under Sir Mark Elder and the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Prinzregententheater under Keri Lynn-Wilson. Recital work includes regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and RTÉ lyric fm plus appearances at , the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Ludlow English Song Festival collaborating with pianists such as Simon Lepper, Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti, Sholto Kynoch and Iain Burnside. Opera highlights include leading roles at Opéra Royal de Versailles, Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Garsington Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park. Discography includes Rossini: Sigismondo (Bayerischen Rundfunks 2019), O’Dwyer: Eithne (RTÉ lyric fm 2018), Gilbert and Sullivan: HMS Pinafore (Linn Records 2016), Offenbach: Fantasio (Opera Rara 2014) and Fleischmann: Orchestral Works (RTÉ lyric fm 2010).

20 Plans for 2020/21 include the creation of the role of Beethoven in Gerald Barry’s Mrs Streicher for Irish National Opera, a début at La Monnaie in Brussels as Cecil in a Donizetti spectacular entitled Bastarda, the role of the White King in the Irish premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground for Irish National Opera plus concerts for the Ó Bhéal festival and Drogheda Classical Music Festival. Gavan is kindly supported by Opera North Patron Howard Gatiss, the Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Skellig Six 18 Distillery and Michael and Giancarla Alen-Buckley. For more see gavanring.com

21 RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Patron: Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland Chief Conductor: Jaime Martín

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra has been at the centre of Ireland’s cultural life since 1948 when the Raidió Éireann Symphony Orchestra, as it was originally called, was founded.

Today it is a formidable creative force, its presence felt throughout the country in live, year-round performances that celebrate the traditional orchestral, vocal and operatic repertoire and champions the commissioning of new music alongside crossover projects that embrace the best of stage and screen, popular music and traditional music.

In October 2019 it entered an exciting new era when Jaime Martín made his debut in concert as the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor.

In recent years, the RTÉ NSO has reached new audiences through its live screenings in concert of cinema blockbusters such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters and Casino Royale and with its lavish concert tributes to Hollywood icons Gene Kelly, John Williams and Elliot Goldenthal, songwriter extraordinaire Cole Porter and the genius of Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.

22 With a long-established international reputation, the RTÉ NSO has worked with successive generations of world-famous composers from Igor Stravinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen to Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt.

Among the legendary conductors, soloists and singers with whom it has performed are Wilhelm Kempff, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Josef Szigeti, Martha Argerich, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mstislav Rostropovich and our own Bernadette Greevy.

More recent luminaries include Kiri Te Kanawa, , Angela Gheorghiu, Angela Hewitt, Nikolai Demidenko, Maxim Vengerov, Daniel Hope, Tasmin Little and Leonard Slatkin.

Reading like a Who’s Who of Irish music, its collaborations with Irish artists include, among so many others, Sir James Galway, Mary Black, Lisa Hannigan, Liam O’Flynn, The Riptide Movement, Barry Douglas, John O’Conor, Patricia Bardon, Tara Erraught, Celine Byrne and Ailish Tynan.

Countless world premieres by Irish composers have included Elaine Agnew, Gerald Barry, Ed Bennett, Linda Buckley, Ann Cleare, Rhona Clarke, Siobhán Cleary, Shaun Davey, David Fennessy, Marian Ingoldsby, Brian Irvine, Karen Power, Jennifer Walshe, James Wilson and Bill Whelan.

The RTÉ NSO’s acclaimed catalogue of recordings – on the RTÉ lyric fm, Naxos, BIS, Toccata Classics labels and others – include the complete symphonies of Malcolm Arnold, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn and Nielsen, and Composers of Ireland, a landmark series co-funded by RTÉ and The Arts Council. To date, it has recorded works by established names – Gerald Barry, Seóirse Bodley, Raymond Deane, Aloys Fleischmann, John Kinsella, Seán Ó Riada – and a new generation of remarkable voices, including Donnacha Dennehy, Deirdre Gribbin, Kevin Volans and Ian Wilson.

Other major recordings include Robert O’Dwyer’s Irish language opera Eithne (in partnership with Irish National Opera), José Serebrier’s Symphonic BACH Variations and Mary Black Orchestrated. Film and television scores include composer-conductor Michael Giacchino’s Lost in Concert and directors John Boorman’s Queen and Country and Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger.

23 The RTÉ NSO’s work in the world of opera includes the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (co-commissioned by RTÉ and English National Opera) and collaborations with Wide Open Opera: the Irish premieres of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and John Adams’ Nixon in China, and a concert presentation of Raymond Deane’s The Alma Fetish in association with the National Concert Hall.

The orchestra’s extensive educational work includes its Music in the Classroom programme for primary and second level students, and a young musicians’ mentoring scheme.

Broadcasting regularly on RTÉ, it reaches vast international audiences through the European Broadcasting Union.

In 2017, the RTÉ NSO performed, by invitation, in China’s prestigious National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing with conductor José Serebrier. In 2018, with then Principal Guest Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and violinist Ray Chen, it gave the closing concert of the International Festival of Radio Orchestras in Bucharest.

Find out more at www.rte.ie/nso RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

1st Violin Cello Horn Elaine Clark (Co-Leader) Martin Johnson • Bethan Watkeys † Sebastian Liebig † Violetta Valerie-Muth ° Peter Ryan ◊ Orla Ní Bhraoin ° Úna Ní Chanainn Trumpet Brona Fitzgerald Ailbhe McDonagh Claudie Driesen Graham Hastings • Killyan Bannister ◊ Catherine McCarthy Double Bass Karl Sweeney Mark O’Leary Trombone Waldemar Kozak Jason Sinclair • 2nd Violin Elizabeth McLaren ‡ Flute Timpani Larissa O’Grady ° Catriona Ryan • Noel Eccles Mary Wheatley Sinéad Farrell † Paul Fanning Percussion Oboe Jenny Burns Duffy Bernard Reilly ◊ Matthew Manning • Viola Sylvain Gnemmi ‡ Harp

v Andreea Banciu Clarinet Andreja Malír • Francis Harte ° Matthew Billing † Cliona O’Riordan Fintan Sutton † • Section Leader Margarete Clark * Section Principal Bassoon † Principal ‡ Associate Principal Greg Crowley ° String Sub-Principal Hilary Sheil † ◊ Sub-Principal

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

General Manager, RTÉ NSO & RTÉ Philharmonic Choir: Anthony Long [email protected]

Marketing & Communications Manager: Assumpta Lawless Orchestra Manager: Debbra Walters Librarian: Aedín Donnelly Concerts & Planning Co-ordinator: Cathy Stokes Orchestra Administration Assistant: Olive Kelly Senior Orchestra Assistant: Ari Nekrasius Orchestral Assistant: Andy Dunne Management Assistant: Eimear Reilly

For full contact information see rte.ie/nso

25 COMING UP

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FRIDAY 4 DECEMBER, 7pm

Rimsky-Korsakov Polonaise from Christmas Eve Tchaikovsky Introduction, Melodrama and Dance of the Tumblers from The Snow Maiden Suite Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1, ‘Winter Daydreams’

David Brophy conductor

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LIVE FROM THE RDS CONCERT HALL FIND OUT MORE! www.rte.ie/nso 20