Join Liz Nolan on The Full Score live from the National Concert Hall for the Summer Lunchtime Concert Series with National Symphony Orchestra Ireland and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Book your tickets at www.nch.ie
If you can't make it in person, tune in to RTÉ lyric fm on Tuesdays from 1pm to hear a host of gorgeous programmes live from the concert hall stage. The dates and details are as follows:
Tuesday 16th June
The up and coming Irish soprano, Maria Matthews, and Classic FM Rising Star conductor Tess Jackson launch National Symphony Orchestra Ireland's Summer Season in style with heart-wrenching arias and dazzling orchestral music from opera.
Rossini William Tell Overture
Bellini 'Qui la voce’ (I puritani)
Bellini ‘Casta Diva' (Norma)
Bizet Carmen Suite No. 1
Johann Strauss II Czardas from Die Fledermaus
Tess Jackson, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Maria Matthews, soprano
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 23rd June
Two exciting young talents – Irish soprano Ami Hewitt and Polish conductor Agata Zając – bring youthful vitality and verve to a sparkling programme of Viennese and Hungarian operetta.
Suppé Poet and Peasant Overture
Johann Strauss II ‘Mein Herr Marquis’ (The Laughing Song) from Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss II Éljen a Magyar!
Kálmán ‘Ich sing mein Lied im Regen und Schnee’ (Das Veilchen von Montmartre)
Lehár Ballsirenen (on themes from The Merry Widow)
Johann Strauss II Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring)
Johann Strauss II Thunder and Lightning Polka
Agata Zając, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Ami Hewitt, soprano
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 30th June
Likened to Maxim Vengerov for his ‘musical poise and technical ease’ (Irish Times), violinist Patrick Rafter joins exciting young conductor Izabelė Jankauskaitė for a lunchtime of passion, poetry and playfulness.
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Lili Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps
Massenet: Meditation from Thais
Saint-Saens: Bacchanale
Izabelė Jankauskaitė, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Patrick Rafter, violin
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 7th July
Two champions – 2025 RIAM Maura Dowdall Award-winner, clarinettist William Curran, and 2023 Mahler Competition victor, conductor Georg Köhler – unite for a lunchtime escape into the realms of fantasy, romance and high drama.
Berlioz Rákóczy March from La damnation de Faust
Weber Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra
Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1
Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker
Mozart Adagio from Clarinet Concerto
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Georg Köhler, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
William Curran, clarinet
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 14th July
Winner of the National Concert Hall’s Bernadette Greevy Bursary, mezzo-soprano Deirdre Arratoon takes centre stage with arias from French opera at its most impassioned and sensuous. The ‘irrepressible’ (Opera) Bertie Baigent conducts.
Suppé Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Overture
Massenet ‘Werther! Werther!… Je vous écris de ma petite chambre’ (‘Letter Aria’) from Werther
Saint-Saëns ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’ (Samson and Delilah)
Glazunov Concert Waltz No. 2
Bizet Habanera from Carmen
Bizet Seguidilla from Carmen
Massenet Aragonaise and Catalane from Le Cid Ballet Suite
Bertie Baigent, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Deirdre Arratoon, mezzo-soprano
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 4th August
Join The RTÉ Concert Orchestra for a summer lunchtime of Romantic dance music.
Dvořák's passionate Salvonic Dance in E Minor opens a journey through the musical landscape of nineteenth-century Europe. Join us for Grieg’s exotic Arabian Dance and Smetana's Dance of the Comedians, as well as the expressive Bacchanale from Saint-Saëns’ once-banned Samson et Dalila.
The orchestra perform Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers ahead of the RTÉ CO’s Swan Lake with the Ballet de Santiago later this month, and we conclude this RTÉ CO Summer Lunchtime with the glittering power of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919). Be haunted by chromatic chords and dazzled by brass chorale with us.
Waltz into the NCH for a colourful, illustrative and dynamic programme under the baton of Polish conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń.
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, conductor
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm
Tuesday 11th August
Join us for summer sounds from Vienna!
Enjoy a lavish programme including Johann Strauss II’s Overture to Waldmeister (a companion piece to Die Fledermaus in spirit), colourful waltzes including the Emperor’s Waltz and Wiener Blut, and the Egyptischer Marsch.
Also included in this Romantic summer programme is Eduard Strauss’ Unter der Enns. Eduard, the youngest of the three Strauss brothers, was a prolific composer, producing over 320 dances and marches; he had a particular talent for the Polka schnell style expressed here.
From female pianist, actress, singer and composer Constanze Geiger, the RTÉ CO perform the Ferdinandus Waltz, composed by Geiger when she was only 12 years old, reviewed in 1848 as astonishing for its "soulful softness" and delicate motifs. From soulful softness to full orchestral panache, be transported by Offenbach’s rousing Orpheus in the Underworld Overture.
RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Johannes Wildner, conductor
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm