NCH, Dublin Mon 8pm 40-80 01-4170000
TATYANA POLIANSKAYA (PIANO), RUSSIAN STATE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA/VALERY POLIANSKY
Waterfront Hall, Belfast Mon 7.45pm £12-£29.50 048-90334455
ARGENTO ENSEMBLE
Irish World Academy, University of Limerick Tues 1.15pm Adm free 061-202917; NCH Kevin Barry Room, Dublin Wed 8.30pm 15/8 conc 01-4170000; Harty Room, Belfast Thurs 1.10pm Adm free 048-90975337; Castalia Hall, Ballytobin, Callan, Co Kilkenny Fri Feb 17, 8pm 15 056-7761497
It happens. The first two orchestras to visit Ireland in 2012 are playing on the same night in different cities on either side of the border.
The London SO is back at the National Concert Hall for a concert under Antonio Pappano (above). Pappano, who is music director of both the Royal Opera in London and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, makes his Irish debut in a programme of Rachmaninov ( The Isle of the Dead), Korngold (the Violin Concerto with Roman Simovic, one of the orchestra's leaders) and Bartók ( Concerto for Orchestra).
That same night the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra makes a visit to Belfast, where Valery Poliansky conducts Tchaikovsky's Coronation March, Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto(with Tatyana Polianskaya), and Rimsky- Korsakov's Sheherazade.
Later in the week the New York new music group Argento Ensemble take a short Irish tour. The ensemble may be American, but European repertoire is their speciality, and it dominates the touring programmes through works by Aperghis, Berg, Holliger, Cleary, Poppe, Webern, Hurel and Pintscher, with the US represented by Elliott Carter and the ensemble’s conductor, Michel Galante.
