BOTH these orchestras, for instance, can be heard at the Proms in London, where prices range from £4 sterling to 3 sterling (£2 and £3 sterling for prommers).

The NCH can reasonably argue that the Royal Albert Hall offers economies of scale not available in Dublin. But it's surely of significance that the top price for the Chicago orchestra at the Proms is lower than the bottom price in Dublin. Even the far from cheap Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, with a venue closer in capacity to the NCH than the Albert Hall, manages a range of roughly £10 to £90 for the NYPO (and also the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw and other major orchestras).