‘Visceral connection’: New Ross festival pianists on playing for live audiences againFive performers on the lows and highs of lockdown – and what comes nextMon Sep 20 2021 - 05:00
‘This is the big one’: Sligo Festival of Baroque Music returns for 2021Artistic director Nicola Cleary aiming to bring continental enthusiam to the westSat Sep 18 2021 - 05:00
Nicholas Daniel: ‘I had no idea what an oboe was. My father sold cars’The Westport-bound musician talks about his career and how the pandemic has radically changed his prioritiesSat Sep 4 2021 - 05:00
Kilkenny Festival introduces Julius Eastman to new audienceA fiery pianist, and a singer of phenomenal range and powerTue Aug 17 2021 - 05:00
Mozart: Sonatas for piano four hands – up close and personal at the keyboardFerenc Rados and Kirill Gerstein achieve a rare intimacy on these duets for one pianoFri Aug 6 2021 - 05:00
Giselle Allen: ‘Mystique surrounds Elektra for singers. It’s seen as a voice-killer’Belfast soprano on music, acting and her career route to Strauss’s angry, angular roleSat Jul 31 2021 - 05:00
Sitkovetsky Trio: Ravel & Saint-Saens Piano Trios review – energetic rendering accentuates mysteryTrio finds the colours and ebb and flow to bring out the mystery in the RavelFri Jul 16 2021 - 05:00
‘I sort of vomited up a draft’: Megan Nolan and Amanda Feery on creating an opera for the first timeA Thing I Cannot Name is a collaboration between the two that explores ugly side of desireSat Jul 10 2021 - 05:00
Erik Chisholm Songs: Strong and sensitive performancesThe Scottish composer’s music displays a spicy spirit; the best of it is jocular in toneFri Jul 2 2021 - 00:00
Choir returns: ‘It’s the most normal thing, but it’s now such a joy’Conductor Bernie Sherlock’s concert with Chamber Choir Ireland streams this weekWed Jun 23 2021 - 05:00
Ben Goldscheider: Legacy, A Tribute to Dennis Brain – Probing reminder of musicianFri Jun 18 2021 - 05:00
Sean Shibe: The great composers didn’t write for the guitar in substantial waysThe guitarist uses the instrument to explore colour in an ‘overtly physical and tactile way’Tue Jun 15 2021 - 06:00
Music Ireland and the Sixteenth Century: The Irish Consort – Enchanting harpIn sure hands, the nail-plucked, metal-strung Irish harp displays an ethereal magicFri Jun 4 2021 - 05:00
A French Connection: Chausson, Debussy, Franck – Alluring arrangements and sensual deliveryViolinist Daniel Rowland and pianist Natacha Kudritskaya helm this appealing collectionFri May 21 2021 - 05:00
Fiachra Garvey: From sheep dipping to ShostakovichPianist and farmer talks about agriculture, classical music and protecting his handsTue May 18 2021 - 05:00
Wexford Festival Opera: Curtain up on a historic 70th yearDirector Rosetta Cucchi is looking forward to anniversary celebrations after a tough lockdownTue May 11 2021 - 08:00
Mozart/Jones review: Fascinating take on late fragmentsSensitive performances with a focus on pieces for piano with violinFri May 7 2021 - 05:00
Francesca Dego: Il Cannone review – Refinement and controlDego seems to have developed an immediate affinity for Paganini’s violinFri Apr 16 2021 - 05:00
‘I think we’ve all out-Zoomed ourselves’: A festival organiser adaptsNew Dublin Music’s John Harris on factors beyond his control and keeping streamed performances freshThu Apr 15 2021 - 05:00
Embers: Haunting, unsettling evocations of the pastWorks by Irish composer Raymond Deane enclose a much longer piece by Ukrainian Valentin SilvestrovFri Apr 2 2021 - 05:00
Cellissimo: Mischa Maisky on the master cellists who inspired himThe Israeli cellist plays the final concert of Music for Galway’s online-only cello festivalMon Mar 22 2021 - 05:00
The Trials of Tenducci, A Castrato in Ireland – exploring musical connectionsTara Erraught, Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra evoke Dublin in the 1700sFri Mar 19 2021 - 05:00
Anna Devin: ‘I’ve been full of happiness and deep sadness all at the same time’The soprano on ‘grieving for the music industry’, childbirth and singing in La bohèmeWed Mar 10 2021 - 05:00
Brahms: Sonatas Op 120 review – A redefined approach to musicAntoine Tamestit and Cédric Tiberghien play with individuality and intimacyFri Mar 5 2021 - 05:00
Ellen Jansson on discovering Fanny Mendelssohn: ‘It’s deeply personal’Clonmel’s Finding a Voice festival of music by women composers is going online this yearSat Feb 27 2021 - 05:00
Three Irish opera projects shortlisted for prestigious European prizeMichael Gallen’s Straymaker, Wexford Festival Opera and Irish National Opera make listMon Feb 22 2021 - 05:00
Relive: Live orchestral works that capture a time and placePieces by Jane O’Leary, Peter Dickson Lopez and Corrina Bonshek still resonateFri Feb 19 2021 - 05:00
Chiaroscuro Quartet: Haydn String Quartets Op 76 – magicians at workThe quartet achieves a well-nigh perfect balancing of parts that seems impossibleFri Feb 5 2021 - 05:00
Oculi Ensemble: Metamorphosen review – How Strauss shed his father’s influenceRichard Strauss went his own wild way, as this selection of chamber works showsFri Jan 22 2021 - 05:00
Finghin Collins: ‘Ireland has done extremely well for the arts online’The pianist on Music for Galway and working on his repertoire during lockdownMon Jan 18 2021 - 05:00
West Cork Chamber Music Festival doubles down for 2021Artistic director Francis Humphrys is responding to Covid by adding more showsThu Jan 14 2021 - 05:00
Swan Hennessy Selected Piano Works review – Mildly picturesqueThe Irish-American composer wore a range of musical hatsFri Jan 8 2021 - 05:00
Linda Catlin Smith: Meadow review – Deeply meditativeThe first in Louth Contemporary Music Society’s series of pandemic recordingsFri Dec 18 2020 - 05:00
Get a musical fix with 20 Shots of OperaIrish National Opera commissioned 20 short operas that were composed and quickly produced for videoSat Dec 12 2020 - 05:00
Elaine Agnew’s hopes still afloat for Paper Boat operaComposer’s Galway 2020 community project postponed twice during pandemicSat Dec 5 2020 - 05:00
Chamber Choir Ireland and Irish Chamber Orchestra: Letters review – Recording is extremely vividSinging and orchestral playing is on fireFri Dec 4 2020 - 05:00
Don’t sing so close to me: Choirs in the Covid eraOnce a communal activity, choral singing has been a high-risk one during the pandemicSat Nov 28 2020 - 05:00
Linda Buckley: From Ocean’s Floor review – Moodily dark soundtrackThe Kinsale composer’s work is dominated by morphings of electronic soundsFri Nov 20 2020 - 05:00
Ensemble Marsyas/Peter Whelan: Edinburgh 1742, Barsanti & Handel, Parte SecondaWhelan’s airy, sprightly approach captures well the pleasurably frisky energyFri Nov 6 2020 - 05:00
Tempo of change at NCH set to increaseMajor redevelopment and Symphony Orchestra to be transferred under NCH remitThu Oct 29 2020 - 05:00
Wexford opera, virtually: A bittersweet affair in Covid’s shadowFirst-rate soloists and the Wexford Factory enliven binge-watching this year’s Wexford Festival Opera online, a Festival in the AirTue Oct 20 2020 - 01:00
Lisette Oropesa: ‘I’m glad I wasn’t thrust into superstardom’American soprano talks of Vienna audiences and opera in a time of pandemic precautionsSat Oct 17 2020 - 05:00
Jörg Widmann, Denis Kozhukhin, Irish Chamber Orchestra: Weber review – glowing composer brought out of the shadowsWidmann makes a passionate plea for this brilliant but oft-neglected German composerFri Oct 16 2020 - 05:00
Tabea Debus: Ohrwurm review – tunes that will dance around in your headThe German recorder player explores how ‘earworms’ burrowed into European musicFri Oct 2 2020 - 05:00
Wexford Factory performers at heart of this year’s Opera Festival productionsSingers will appear in Waiting for Shakespeare and Falstaff and moreThu Sep 24 2020 - 05:00
Contempo Quartet at 25: ‘I’d would like to think we are a little wiser’The Galway ensemble, celebrating 25 years together, say they’ve learned from lockdownMon Sep 21 2020 - 05:00
Karen Power: Human nature review – A kind of magic carpetRecordings have atmospheric vividness and rich spatialisationFri Sep 18 2020 - 05:00