NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000 CATHERINE LEONARD (VIOLIN), RTÉ NSO/GAVIN MALONEY NCH, Dublin Tues 6.30pm €10-€35 01-4170000 This week sees quite a breakout for the RTÉ NSO

No, it's not the fact that the orchestra is being directed by a string player – Julian Rachlin – who will play solo viola (in the Trauermusikthat Hindemith wrote on the death of King George V in 1936), as well as solo violin (in Beethoven's Violin Concerto), andtake charge of a symphony by Mozart (the Haffner). Nor is it the fact that the orchestra is giving two evening concerts in the same week, both of which feature violin soloists – Catherine Leonard is the soloist in Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor.

No, the real breakout is that, for the first time this century, an Irish conductor actually gets to conduct the orchestra in a symphony by Mahler. The last time this happened was in 1999, when Robert Houlihan conducted Mahler’s First.

Tuesday’s conductor is Gavin Maloney. And, truth to tell, his performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony may mark the first time any Irish conductor under 30 has been given such an opportunity by RTÉ.