It's a bit of a cliche to look to things American for the Irish connection. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra can trace one right back to its earliest years. Dublin-born Victor Herbert, composer of Babes in Toyland and Ah! Sweet mystery of life, became music director in 1898, when the orchestra was just two years old, and remained with it for six years. The current incumbent is Latvian Mariss Jansons (right), whose previous appearance in Dublin, in 1987 with the Leningrad Philharmonic, was an occasion to remember. The concerto-less programme on offer at the National Concert Hall next Tuesday consists of two romantic symphonies, Sibelius's First (a century old this year) and Berlioz's ever-modern sounding Symphonie fantastique.
Michael Dervan
