NSOI Summer Lunchtime

Gavin Maloney, conductor
Andreja Malir, harp
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm

Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin
T.C. Kelly Fantasia for Harp and Orchestra on Two Irish Airs
Lili Boulanger D’un matin de printemps
Alphonse Hasselmans arr. Mark Armstrong La Source
Carlos Salzedo arr. Mark Armstrong Rumba
Chabrier Danse slave from Le roi malgré lui

The National Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Harpist, Andreja Malir, steps into the lunchtime limelight to showcase the instrument’s uniquely enchanting voice.

The harp’s ringing, cut-crystal delicacy is heard to affecting ends in the plaintive grace and pretty finery of T.C. Kelly’s Fantasia for Harp and Orchestra on Two Irish Airs. Its romantic side comes into its own in Mark Armstrong’s arrangements of Alphonse Hasselmans’ charming and evocative La Source, and Carlos Salzedo’s lively, infectious Rumba.

Orchestral gems include Ravel’s vital borrowing of Baroque dances to commemorate friends lost in war, Le tombeau de Couperin, Lili Boulanger’s combining of playful high spirits and poignant introspection, D’un matin de printemps, and Chabrier’s rousing Danse slave from his comic opera, Le roi malgré lui.

Presented by NCH