NSOI Summer Lunchtime

Georg Köhler, conductor
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
William Curran, clarinet
Presented by Liz Nolan, RTÉ lyric fm

Berlioz Rákóczy March from La damnation de Faust
Weber Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra
Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1
Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker
Mozart Adagio from Clarinet Concerto
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Two champions – 2025 RIAM Maura Dowdall Award-winner, clarinettist William Curran, and 2023 Mahler Competition victor, conductor Georg Köhler – unite for a lunchtime escape into the realms of fantasy, romance and high drama.

Berlioz’s thrilling Rákóczy March from La damnation de Faust transforms a famous Hungarian tune into a blazing orchestral showpiece, Brahms’s spirited Hungarian Dance No. 1 channels Romani-inspired fire and swagger into something infectious and irresistible, the radiant Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker a luxuriant, balletic swirl of melody and colour.

Weber’s warming Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra is a rich and ripe theme and variations marrying operatic lyricism with dazzling agility, the sublime Adagio from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto sings with poised, otherworldly stillness in a long-breathed moment of luminous serenity and poise.

Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice restores good humour with a whirlwind scherzo of magical mayhem, unruly broomsticks and orchestral mischief.

Presented by NCH