Leonard Bernstein was aged 31 in 1949, when he completed his Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety. Bernstein regarded Auden's poem exploring loneliness and faith as "one of the most shattering examples of pure virtuosity in the history of English poetry". Not many of Bernstein's major works feature with any frequency in concert programmes in Ireland, so the Ulster Orchestra has pulled off quite a coup by calling on Canadian super-pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin (right) for next Friday's performance at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Dmitry Sitkovetsky conducts, and the programme also includes Strauss's Don Juan and the 1947 orchestration of Stravinsky's Petrushka.
