Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Fri 7.45pm £8-£23.50 048-90239955 CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN, RTÉ NSO/FINGHIN COLLINSNCH, Dublin, Fri 8pm 10-35 01-4170000 GALWAY EARLY MUSIC FESTIVALGalway Fri-Sun SOLOISTS FROM BOLSHOI OPERABolshoi SO/Alan Buribayev NCH, Dublin, Mon 8pm €30-€75 01-4170000 ENGLISH TOURING OPERA
Grand Opera House, Belfast, Wed-Sat 25th 048-90241919

It’s piano time again for the Ulster Orchestra and the RTÉ NSO. The keyboard features in both orchestras’ Friday programmes, Peter Donohoe playing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in Belfast under Dima Slobodeniouk, Finghin Collins and Cédric Tiberghien joining forces in Mozart’s Concerto for two pianos in Dublin, in a programme that also includes two other Mozart concertos.

The Galway Early Music Festival runs until Sunday, exploring the theme of Paying the Piper, Musicians and Their Patrons. I Fagiolini (below) present a programme on Friday entitled The Twisted World of Musical Patronage, and on Saturday, the Irish Consort explore 17th-century patronage and politics on the musical stage in a programme called The King Dances.

There's opera and ballet from the soloists and orchestra of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre at the NCH on Monday (excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Oneginand Prokofiev's Cinderella), with the RTÉ NSO's principal conductor replacing the indisposed Alexander Lazarev.

And English Touring Opera offer multiple operatic flavours on a visit to the Grand Opera House in Belfast from Wednesday: Tobias Picker's treatment of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox, Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchifrom Puccini's trilogy, and Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.