Quirine Viersen (cello), UO/Carlos Kalmarviersen (cello), UO/Carlos Kalmar, Ulster Hall, Belfast, Fri 7.45pm, £8-£20, 048-90668798
The Ulster Orchestra has been following a Czech theme in its March concerts in the newly-refurbished Ulster Hall. This Friday's offering is a kind of musical sandwich. The filling is two of the most popular pieces of the Czech repertoire, Dvorak's Cello Concerto, with Dutch cellist Quirine Viersen, and Smetana's symphonic poem Vltava(still well-known in the English-speaking world as The Moldau), which follows the course of the Czech Republic's greatest river. The bread of the musical sandwich is much rarer material, Josef Suk's short Meditation on the St Wenceslas Choraleand Bohuslav Martinu's affirmative Second Symphony of 1943, the most compact of the composer's six symphonies. The concert is conducted by the Uruguayan/Austrian Carlos Kalmar, a newcomer to Belfast, but a regular visitor to the RTÉ NSO in Dublin in recent years.