Saturday, July 30th
West Cork Chamber Music Festival
Various venues; Bantry, Co. Cork; until Sunday, July 8th; westcorkmusic.ie
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival, which began on Friday, has this year added an extra day, which probably translates into somewhere between 10 and 20 extra pieces. Highlights include a spread of work by women composers from the 17th century to the present: pianist Barry Douglas playing Brahms; Philippe Cassard in the first book of Debussy's Préludes; and the Brahms sonatas for piano and violin played by Cédric Tiberghien and Alina Ibragimova. There are also a couple of works by Shostakovich's great friend Mieczyslaw Weinberg; Messiaen's song cycle Harawi from Caroline Melzer and Cédric Pescia; the great tenor Mark Padmore in Bach, Schubert and more; and a late-night performance of John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (Tiberghien). A clutch of pieces are being heard for the first time, a new commission from Deirdre Gribbin (Kindersang, a response to the Refugee Children Movement prompted by Hitler's Kristallnacht), and four new works by young composers, Daragh Black Hynes, Darragh Kelly, Lisa Robertson and Omar Zatriqi.
Sunday, July 1st
Sebastian Heindl
St Michael's Church, Dún Laoghaire; 8pm; €12; dunlaoghaireorganconcerts.ie
The Pipeworks festival of organ and choral music may be over. But the annual series of organ recitals at St Michael's in Dún Laoghaire is in full swing and will run every Sunday night until September 2nd. German organist Sebastian Heindl, who gives the last of the June concerts, is one of the youngest players to feature in the series. He was born in 1997; is a former member of Leipzig's Thomanerchor; recorded his first CD at the age of 17; and his Irish connection is that he won the senior section of the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition last year. His choice of music for Dún Laoghaire ranges from Aguilera de Heredia through Bach, Reger, Karg-Elert and Messiaen to the little-known German composer Tilo Medek (1940-2006).
Tuesday, July 3rd
RTÉ NSO/Anthony Weeden
NCH, Dublin; 1.05pm; €12; nch.ie
William Walton extracted his Spitfire Prelude and Fugue from his score for Leslie Howard's 1942 biopic The First of the Few about RJ Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire fighter aircraft. It opens an RTÉ's National Symphony Orchestra programme that concentrates on movies and motion, running through Richard Rodney Bennett's score for Murder on the Orient Express, Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto (from Brief Encounter), John Williams's Indian Jones Scherzo for motorcycle and orchestra, Vivian Ellis's train-inspired Coronation Scot, and Matthew Hindson's heavy-metal inspired speed ride, RPM. Anthony Weedon conducts and Ben Dawson is the piano soloist in the Warsaw Concerto.
