BACK from residency at Kilkenny Arts Festival, the Irish Chamber Orchestra will open its A/W16 season at University Concert Hall on Thursday September 15 with (note capital letters) ICONS.
Living up to this shout-out, look forward to music by rock’nroll greats, the world premier of a string re-arrangement, a renowned cellist from Hungary and works by Tchaikovsky and Schubert.
Conducting will be the orchestra’s artistic partner of years, Gabor Takacs Nagy, who is also Hungarian.
Diversity is buzz for this concert with ‘Purple Haze’ by Jimmy Hendrix and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ by the Rolling Stones colouring up the night.
Ian Wilson revisits his string quartet ‘Veer’, arranging it for full string orchestra. The ICO performs this premiere. Expect “the passionate, songful, flirtatious and beguiling” ‘Souvenir de Florence’ by Tchaikovsky as well as Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione Sonata’.
This will allow soloist István Várdai to display his virtuosity in this arrangement for cello and strings by Dobrinka Tabakova.
From there, arrive at the ‘African Symphony’ by Abdullah Ibrahim Blanton, providing what the orchestra terms “a hugely atmospheric contrast”.
The ICO and Várdai perform variations on two popular from the 1960s, arranged by the Swiss jazz-classical artist Daniel Schnyder, also the man behind the Hendrix haze to be delivered same Thursday.
Book at box office direct or online at www.uch.ie for this annual opening night, 8pm.
