Classical Music | News, Interviews, Gigs, & More | The Irish Times

Tara Erraught: was rehearsing at the Met when, ‘after four and a half week’s rehearsals they cancelled at 1.15pm on the day of the opening night’

Three Irish classical musicians on the impact of the global shutdown

Cancelled events have hit Jonny Byers, Peter Whelan and Tara Erraught hard

Krzysztof Penderecki, who has died in Kraków, Poland on Sunday aged 86

Polish avant-garde composer who had the common touch

Krzysztof Penderecki had a remarkable career, but was most proud of his arboretum

Irish tenor John McCormack painted by Sir William Orpen in 1923. He cut his teeth at Feis Ceoil. Photograph: Christies/PA Wire

Feis Ceoil the biggest loss to Irish classical calendar

Coronavirus ravages cultural schedule but online musical archives will reward raiding

Yasko Sato as Teodora in Il Bravo by Mercadante, at Wexford Festival Opera in 2018, can be viewed on YouTube. Photograph: Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

The show must go online: How venues are keeping the music alive

Covid-19 has shut concert halls and productions, but you can watch safely on the web

Boeing, whose 707 helped define the jet age in the 1950s, claims that today’s planes have ‘a 90 per cent smaller noise footprint area’ compared to the earlier jets. Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

High sound levels a health risk in classical music

Numerous composers suffer from tinnitus and even violinists tend to end up with hearing damage in the left ear

Harpsichordist Malcolm Proud curates three Bach concerts in the NCH’s Chamber Music Series, with the first on Wednesday 11th

Bach in season: This week’s classical music highlights

NCH hosts concerts by Bach Collegium Japan/Masaaki Suzuki and Malcolm Proud

Xenia Pestova Bennett introduced Irish listeners to the sounds of the Magnetic Resonator Piano. Photograph: Paul Hudson

New Music Dublin festival breaks fresh ground

Unusual ambience and myriad external intrusions fails to derail eclectic artistry

Hugh Tinney

The best classical music concerts in Ireland this week

New Music Dublin, Hugh Tinney, RTÉ NSO/Michail Jurowski

Gerald Barry. Photograph: Alan Betson

New Music Dublin: A myriad of creative musical endeavours

With more than 20 events over four days, the festival features the best in contemporary music

Bang on a Can All-Stars. Photograph: Timothy Norris, courtesy Ford Theater

The best classical music and opera to see this week

Beethoven’s Fidelio and New Music Dublin both come to the National Concert Hall

Songs by composer Jennifer Walshe feature in Wednesday’s concert from the Irish Language Irish Art Song Project.

Putting Irish-language songs centre stage

The Irish Language Art Song Project: its promotion of Irish music is nonpareil

Kevin O’Connell

Irish language project commissions 50 songs from composers at home and abroad

Michael Dervan speaks to six composers about themes of grief, nature and lamentation

Pianist Simon Trpceski will play Brahms and Liszt

The best classical music to see this week

The Irish Language Art Song Project , the next in NSO’s Bruckner series and pianist Simon Trpceski

Peter Whelan.

The Trials of Tenducci: National Gallery concert celebrates 18th century castrato

Tenducci’s career and notoriety flourished in England and Ireland

Angela Hewitt playing her Fazioli: ‘I adored this piano. It was my best companion.’ Photograph: Keith Saunders

Irreplaceable €175,000 piano smashed after moving attempt goes wrong

Angela Hewitt’s unique F278 Fazioli destroyed in attempt to lift it on to trolley

Hansel and Gretel: Amelie Metcalfe, Ronan Millar and Raymond Keane in the INO, Theatre Lovett and Abbey Theatre production. Photograph: Patrick Redmond

Hansel and Gretel: Flamboyance, playfulness and imagination in INO’s take on Humperdinck

Opera review: Some signals get crossed, but this production aimed both at adults and at children is a really worthwhile venture

Irish National Opera is teaming up with Theatre Lovett and the Abbey Theatre for an English-language production of Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

Three classical concerts to see this week

Hansel and Gretal the opera, work by women composers and celebrating Beethoven

Amelie Metcalfe and Carolyn Dobbin: Hansel and Gretel is the first opera that Theatre Lovett have produced. However, they have a long history of working with music. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

‘We lay a trail of breadcrumbs to lead through the opera’

A family-friendly Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel aims to draw in children

On his new record 2020, Dawson plays strangely jarring but beautiful guitar and synth motifs. Photograph: Sally Pilkington

Richard Dawson: ‘I don’t want to tell people what to think’

The Newcastle musician speaks about post-Brexit UK, fictional songwriting and embracing contradiction

Mooted move: when Bertie Ahern was taoiseach he announced the never-to-be achieved transfer of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra to the Helix, at Dublin City University

Are parties’ promises music to our ears or just empty noises?

Arts funding is an issue in the general election, but some figures seem unrealistic

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