Messiah

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Tonight 7.30pm €30; St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway Tomorrow 7pm €25 TALES OF ENCHANTMENT Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin Sun noon Adm free 01-2225550

The annual Messiah collaboration between the singers of Mark Duley’s choir Resurgam and the period instruments of the Irish Baroque Orchestra takes place tonight and tomorrow. The soloists are Róisín O’Grady, Sharon Carty, Oliver Mercer and James Morrison, and the conductor is Roy Goodman, whose last Messiah in Ireland was 10years ago in the very different context of the Belfast Philharmonic Choir and the Ulster Orchestra in the vastness of Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.

On Sunday the duo of baroque violinist Maya Homburger and double bassist Barry Guy showcase the music from their latest album, Tales of Enchantment, including three of the Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich Biber, György Kurtág’s Hommage à JSB, and works by Guy himself. The duo are hoping to draw attention to the next Barrow River Arts Festival, which they founded in 2011 and which in 2013 moves back from the beginning of March to the second April 19th-21st, when the guests will include Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga and the Hilliard Ensemble.

MICHAEL DERVAN