New Ross Piano Festival

St Mary’s Church, New Ross, Co Wexford Fri-Sun 051-421255

SOPHIE CASHELL (PIANO)

NCH, Dublin Tonight 7pm Adm free 01-41700000

RTÉ NSO/BARRY DOUGLAS (PIANO)

NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000

STEVEN OSBORNE (PIANO), UO/ANDRÉ DE RIDDER

Ulster Hall, Belfast Tonight 7.45pm £8-£20 048-90239955

STEFAN ARNOLD (PIANO)

Tullynally Castle, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath Tues 8pm €20 044-9666344

It's not just piano time at the New Ross Piano Festival this weekend. Tonight the RTÉ NSO has Barry Douglas playing and conducting Brahms's First Piano Concerto, and there's also a free Culture Night performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibitionby Sophie Cashell.

Steven Osborne repeats Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto in Belfast in a programme under André Ridder that also celebrates Schumann (the Overture, Scherzo and Finale) and Dvorak (the Seventh Symphony).

The visiting pianists at the New Ross festival are Libor Novacek, Sa Chen (pictured), Abdel Rahman El Bacha and Rebecca Capova, and the guest ensemble is the Renoir String Quartet. The festival's artistic director, Finghin Collins, who made a second, successful appearance at this year's BBC Proms, plays Schumann's Fantasiestücke and Piano Quintet, Schubert's late Sonata in B flat, and Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue.

The rarest offerings come from Chen, who explores the exceptional, 19th-century virtuosity of Charles-Valentin Alkan ( Le Vent) and also offers Lake Namuby contemporary Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang.

There's more Schumann later in the week, in German pianist Stefan Arnold's programme at Tullynally Castle on Tuesday, when his Kreislerianarubs shoulders with works by Schubert and Marcus Davy.