(Ulster Hall - after two years of restoration)
This week's concert comes via the BBC from the newly renovated Ulster Hall in Belfast Ireland on March 9, 2009 featuring the Ulster Orchestra led by Kenneth Montgomery.
And here are the notes from that program:
A concert with the Ulster Orchestra celebrating the re-opening of their new home, the newly-restored Ulster Hall. Known locally as 'the Grande Dame of Bedford Street', the venue has been restored to its Victorian grandeur following two years of renovations.
The programme opens with Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture, originally composed for the opening of the Josephstadter Theatre in Vienna in 1822. Belfast pianist Michael McHale is the soloist in Rachmaninov's showpiece, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, while Stanford's Songs of Fleet pays a passing tribute to Belfast's long association with the sea and the shipbuilding industry.
A new work by Brian Irivne, Big Daddy Motorhead, celebrates the past by marking some of the Ulster Hall's celebrated performers, before the closing piece - Stravinsky's Firebird Suite 1919
Michael McHale (piano)
Paul Whelan (baritone)
Belfast Philharmonic Choir
Ulster Orchestra
Kenneth Montgomery (conductor)
Beethoven: Overture (The Consecration of the House)
Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
Brian Irvine: Big Daddy Motorhead (world premiere)
Stanford: Songs of the Fleet
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919)
Since the concert is a little over 2 hours long, I've split it with the Beethoven and Rachmaninov on the player above and the Irvine, Stanford and Stravinsky on the player down here.
Enjoy. And don't forget:
