UO/KENNETH MONTGOMERY Ulster Hall, Belfast Today 7.45pm Adm free 0044370-9011227

VESSELIN STANEV (piano), NCH John Field Room, Dublin Tues 8pm 15 01-4170000

CHRISTIANE KARG (soprano), MAGDALENA KOZENA (mezzo soprano), MICHAEL SCHADE (tenor), OSC/ARIEL ZUCKERMANN. NCH, Dublin Wed 8.30pm 25,50 01-4170000

CONTEMPO STRING QUARTET Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin Wed 8pm 10 (under-16s free) 091-586706 ULRIKE SCHNEIDER (alto), PAUL MCNAMARA (tenor), IAN CADDY (bass), UCD CHORAL SCHOLARS, OUR LADY’S CHORAL SOCIETY, RTÉCO/PROINNSÍAS Ó DUINN NCH, Dublin Thurs 8pm 25-30 01-4170000

Summer must be over – the classical calendar is suddenly buzzing again. Catherine Leonard gives the first performance of a work that’s nearly 80 years old by an Irish composer you may never have heard of in Belfast on Friday. Ina Boyle, who studied with Vaughan Williams, completed her Violin Concerto in 1933, and its first airing, with Kenneth Montgomery conducting, finds it in the company of works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Elaine Agnew and Hamilton Harty.

It’s not too often you’ll encounter a pianist brave enough to offer all of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies in a single programme. But that’s what Bulgarian pianist Vesselin Stanev (pictured) is doing at the NCH John Field Room on Tuesday.

If the Irish début of leading Czech mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozena has escaped your notice - it’s at the NCH on Wednesday - that’s probably because it’s taking place in a concert that’s billed as “Ocean Sun Festival goes shoreside”. The Ocean Sun Festival takes place on board Hapag Lloyd Cruises’ MS Europa (“arguably the world’s best luxury cruise ship”), and Kozena is sharing the bill with soprano Christiane Karg, tenor Michael Schade, and the Orchestra of St Cecilia under Ariel Zuckermann.

Also on Wednesday, Galway’s ensemble in residence, the ConTempo String Quartet, have chosen Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre to open a short tour that features George Crumb’s spectacular, Vietnam War-inspired Black Angels.

And at the NCH on Thursday, Proinnsías Ó Duinn conducts Our Lady’s Choral Society and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius to mark the beatification of John Henry Newman by Pope Benedict XVI. Ulrike Schneider, Paul McNamara and Ian Caddy are the soloists.