Date: Sunday 1st May 2022
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Main Stage, National Concert Hall
Tickets €12

RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Gavin Maloney, conductor
Michael McHale, piano

Garrett Sholdice Prelude No. 12 [World Premiere]
Stephen Gardner Deliverance [World Premiere]
Ailís Ní Ríain Flower Scar Road [World Premiere]
Andrew Synnott Waiting for Elvira [Live Premiere]

“… and with one bound, they were free!”

The orchestral premieres in tonight’s concert were conceived and commissioned either before or during lockdown, and all have waited, patiently, until they could be let free tonight! They test the virtuosity of the orchestra - the ability of this astonishing musical creature, made of so many different people, to think as though with one mind, and to move as one, and yet retain their individuality and self-expression.

Before we let the orchestral works out in to the world we suspend time for the simple, haunting single line of Garrett Sholdice's Piano Prelude No. 12, played by Michael McHale, before he launches in to Andrew Synnott's sparkling Waiting for Elvira with the orchestra.

Four wonderful Irish compositional voices - radical and complex in their own ways - expressing and releasing their own lockdown thoughts and feelings.
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