RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin conductor
Alina Ibragimova violin

Cindy McTee Circuits / 6’
R. Strauss Violin Concerto / 31’
Elgar Enigma Variations / 33’

Internationally acclaimed American maestro Leonard Slatkin is a podium star with presence with more awards than you can shake a stick who has led the world’s best orchestras. A treat is in store!

From the sublime to the sublime via the sublime. Treat after treat after treat, in fact, with a firing on all cylinders modern American classic, a German concerto brimming with youthful ardour and a masterpiece of English lyricism.

Cindy McTee’s kinetically propelled Circuits is like West Side Story on speed (not that kind!). An adrenaline-rush of urban immediacy, it’s a cartoon in perpetual fast forward. Try to keep up – if you can!

Apologies to all you 19-year-old composers out there, but Richard Strauss was 18 when he completed his Violin Concerto. Innocent and enraptured, it’s a glorious flowering of romance, unfettered passion and infatuation with melody – much like finding yourself in love for the first time. No, really. Star violinist Alina Ibragimova’s ‘special brand of virtuosity’ (The Guardian) is a guarantee of something special indeed.

Once heard, never forgotten. Elgar’s Enigma Variations have a way of getting under your skin. Portraits in music of the composer himself, his wife and friends, it’s a bit like Instagram, but so much better. A high-watermark of 20th-century English music, with one memorable, soaring tune after another, Elgar refused to provide an answer for the puzzle it contains. It’s not called Enigma for nothing!

Presented by RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra