Ulster Hall, Belfast Tonight 7.45pm £8-£20 048-90239955 OSC/PROINNSÍAS Ó DUINN NEWMAN:University Church, St Stephen's Green, Dublin Sun 3.30pm €25 01-6778571
English pianist Benjamin Grosvenor made headlines by winning the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2004, when he was just 11. And when he made his Dublin debut with the Ulster Orchestra two years ago he marked himself out by playing with a maturity well beyond his years. Grosvenor is back with the orchestra this week, when he takes on the challenges of Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto. Bramwell Tovey conducts, and the programme also includes Hamilton Harty’s
With the Wild Gees
e and Nielsen’s
Inextinguishable Symphony
.
It was the Ulster Orchestra that gave what, to the best of my knowledge, was the first complete performance of Haydn’s symphonies in Ireland, in a Children in Need marathon in Belfast. The Orchestra of St Cecilia is taking on the same challenge, but at a more leisurely pace. They’ve embarked on a six-year project, whose first leg of six concerts comes to an end this Sunday afternoon, when Proinnsías Ó Duinn conducts Symphonies 4, 40 and 75.