The RTÉ Concert Orchestra was voted the second favourite orchestra in the world in an online poll by the website bachtrack.com this week, beaten only by the Cleveland Orchestra.

The Irish orchestra received 12.4% of the votes, more than the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouwor Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. The only other Irish orchestra in the top twenty — the Belfast-based Ulster Orchestra — came in sixteenth place with 1.5% of the vote.

Polling took place over a month and 11,895 votes were cast for 417 orchestras in 97 countries. Close to half the votes came from the United States, while Ireland provided 11.8% of the votes, the second highest number of votes per country.

Alison Karlin, Director of Bachtrack said she was delighted with the response to the competition. ‘Hopefully this poll will further encourage those same fans to remind themselves why these orchestras are so dear to their hearts, by going to hear them play this season,’ she said.

‘It’s humbling for us in a small country such as Ireland to realise how important we are to our public that they would vote in huge numbers, resulting in this outcome,’ said Anthony Long, General Manager of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, noting that the vote placed his orchestra ‘in the top five of the world’s favourite orchestras’.