National Symphony Orchestra: A Celebration For International Women’s Day
Nil Venditti, conductor
Catriona Ryan, flute
Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm
Joan Tower Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1
Ina Boyle The Magic Harp
Fanny Mendelssohn Overture in C
Marianna Martines Overture to Isacco, figura del Redentore
Caroline Shaw Entr’acte
Cécile Chaminade Concertino for Flute
Anna Clyne Masquerade
To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the National Symphony Orchestra celebrates with the first of two concerts, this evening a celebration of seven distinctive, very different pioneering female voices from Ireland, Europe and the United States, with rising star conductor Nil Venditti leading the NSO.
The NSO’s own principal flute, Catriona Ryan, steps into the spotlight for Cécile Chaminade’s exquisitely romantic, eloquently French-sounding Concertino for Flute.
Closer to home, Ina Boyle’s The Magic Harp evocatively conjures the Irish myth of the durd-alba, the sinuously, sensually moving wind among apple trees in blossom, in a ravishing rhapsody for orchestra.
Voices from the New World including Joan Tower’s thrilling, brass-led Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1, Cindy McTee’s audacious The Unquestioned Answer, complete with horns, harp, cowbell and bongos, and the cinematic sweep and grandeur of London-born, US-resident Anna Clyne’s exuberant, glistening Masquerade.