On the Town: Queues formed early at the box office of the National Concert Hall as the 2005/2006 programme of concerts from the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra was unveiled this week.
"There's nothing to beat live music," said Deirdre Scott-Hayward, a loyal fan of the concert hall. "I love it," said Fr Kevin Laheen SJ, who was also studying the rich and varied programme, which includes work by Mozart, Puccini and Scottish composer James MacMillan, as well as many French highlights, from works by Berlioz to Faust et Hélène by Lili Boulanger.
The orchestra's Friday night series "is the cornerstone", said Vivian Coates, artistic director of Lyric Opera Productions. They are "sacrosanct", he said. "They do great symphonic works and they have great soloists coming," he said, while his own company is preparing to perform a rarely heard Verdi work, I Due Foscari, next Thursday, as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations.
It is the music of Shostakovich that will be the orchestra's main theme this season, explained Brian O'Rourke, general manager of the RTÉNSO. All of the composer's 15 symphonies will be played to mark the centenary of his birth. "Shostakovich was a child of the Russian Revolution and his symphonies . . . can be seen as a personal response to the immense forces unleashed by the revolution and its aftermath," said O'Rourke.
Towards the end of the season, the orchestra, under principal conductor Gerhard Markson, will perform five concerts devoted to Brahms, including his four symphonies, concertos and the German Requiem.
Composer Raymond Deane, whose new work, The Samara, will be performed at the NCH in November, was in attendance, as were sopranos Rebecca Ryan and Sylvia O'Brien, who will both be performing with the orchestra during the coming season.
Mary Nolan, group marketing and communications manager of Anglo Irish Bank, sponsors of the season, director general of RTÉ Cathal Goan, and Niall Doyle, executive director of RTÉ Performing Groups, were all present at the launch also.