Bacewicz, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov at the National Concert Hall

Unfortunately I had to miss the opening concert of the 2026/7 season by National Symphony Orchestra Ireland at the National Concert Hall, especially since it was Mahler’s epic Resurrection Symphony. That was three weeks ago and last night was the first time I managed to make it to a concert at the National Concert Hall this season. Earlier this week I was thinking that, although I’ve been walking to and from the NCH on Fridays quite frequently since I moved to Ireland almost 9 years ago, I’ve managed to avoid getting rained on to a significant extent. Yesterday evening my luck ran out and it was bucketing down. Fortunately I took an umbrella and wore an raincoat so I wasn’t too drenched when I arrived. The cloakroom at the NCH is free, by the way. Having arrived and divested myself of coat and brolly, I commenced the usual ritual of buying a programme and noticed the format had changed. The new style is much shorter (and cheaper, at just €2) and has QR codes linking to much of the…