National Symphony Orchestra
David Brophy, conductor
Maxim Vengerov, violin

Ina Boyle Symphony No. 2, ‘The Dream of the Rood’ WORLD PREMIERE
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1
Ravel Tzigane

Please note: The works being performed by Maxim Vengerov mark a change to the previously advertised programme.

The return of the phenomenal Maxim Vengerov – ‘one of the most brilliant violinists you’ll ever hear’ (Washington Post) – is not to be missed, on this occasion performing two great violin showpieces by Prokofiev and Ravel. Alongside, the highly anticipated world premiere of The Dream of the Rood, the Second Symphony by Ina Boyle, the most significant and prolific female composer in Ireland in the first half of the last century.

‘A violinist like Maxim is born only once in a hundred years’ claimed his venerable teacher, Galina Turchaninova. A prodigious talent, Maxim Vengerov made his first recording aged 10 and has since become of the most admired virtuosos of the instrument.

An earlier violin master, Joseph Szigeti, championed Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto, lauding it for ‘its mixture of fairy-tale naïveté and daring savagery’. Consider it a classic Romantic concerto in modern guise as Prokofiev turned away from his ‘Bad Boy’ reputation and towards lyricism and virtuosity. The ravishing result is forged from passion and passages of dream-like intensity to end in bewitched reverie.

Ravel’s rhapsodic Tzigane is one of the great violin showpieces. Harking back to the grandstanding virtuosity of Paganini and Sarasate, it is a playful, romantic, exhilarating flight of fantasy on exotic, colourful and combustible gypsy themes.

Taught by Vaughan Williams, Ina Boyle composed her Second Symphony, The Dream of the Rood, in 1930. Based on an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon religious text in which the writer dreams of the cross on which Christ was crucified. Boyle responds with music of deep, heartfelt emotions that find comforting release in its tranquil finale. Nearly a century after it was written, David Brophy conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in its belated world premiere performance.

Presented by National Symphony Orchestra