Nuria Rial (soprano), Ico/Matthew Halls

University Concert Hall, Limerick Thurs 8pm 20 061-331549; Bailey Allen Hall, NUI Galway Fri 25th, 8pm 20 091-705962; RDS, Dublin Sat 26th 8pm 20 0818-719300

HUGH TINNEY (PIANO)

NCH, Dublin Wed 8pm €20 01-4170000

The Irish Chamber Orchestra is taking on the Irish Baroque Orchestra on its home ground with its latest touring programme. Catalan soprano Nuria Rial (above) and English conductor and keyboard player Matthew Halls are both early music luminaries, and their ICO programme is devoted to three great baroque

masters: Bach (the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and the cantata Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten), Handel (the aria Felicissima quest’alma and the Concerto Grosso in B minor Op 6 No 12), and Telemann (the Don Quixote Suite and the aria Erscheine bald, du Irrstern).

The second of Hugh Tinney’s European Masterworks series at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday is built around Liszt’s ground- breaking Sonata in B minor, and also features Bartók (the Suite, Op 14), Chopin (a nocturne, some mazurkas and a scherzo), and more of Raymond Deane’s Noctuaries.