Opening tomorrow night, the third Early Music Festival in Sligo's Model Arts Centre is the biggest and most ambitious to date, writes Michael Dervan. The major focus is on the forte-piano, with Maggie Cole playing in piano trios in the opening concert, and giving a solo recital (Saturday) in which the violinist Alison Bury receives second billing for her role in two Mozart violin sonatas (as would have been the case in the 18th century). Maggie Cole also gives a lecture on the instrument and its repertoire (Saturday morning), and baroque music from Germany and Italy will feature in the main evening concerts on Sunday and Monday.

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The Wexford Festival has announced its repertoire details for 1999. Opening the festival on Thursday, October 14th will be Karl Goldmark's Die Konigin von Saba (1875), after which Wexford will witness its first Polish opera, Straszny dwor (The Haunted Manor), by Stanislaw Moniuszko; this was premiered in Warsaw in 1865. The final work, Umberto Giordano's Siberia dates from 1903, was the composer's favourite among his operas and, unlikely as it may seem, was also much admired by Faure.