ELISABETH LEONSKAJA (PIANO), RTÉ NSO/ALEXANDER ANISSIMOV NCH, Dublin Fri 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000: Recent work by Gerald Barry has shown a radical shift, with the trademark high-impact manner being replaced by a style that's often calmer, and a harmonic language that has moments of unexpected sweetness.
His string quartet, First Sorrow, a Crash Ensemble commission, is a mostly quiet, hesitant exercise in viol-like poignancy, his Beethoven (setting some of Beethoven's letters to the "immortal beloved") and the one-act opera La Plus Forte explore neo-classical tendencies. There's a chance to see where the new directions are taking him tonight, when the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra premieres an RTÉ commission, No other people, under conductor Alexander Anissimov (a last-minute replacement for the originally advertised Pietari Inkinen), and the composer can be heard in a pre-concert chat with Michael Dungan at 6.45pm.
Also on the programme are Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Elisabeth Leonskaja and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.
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