Tír Na HiFi

I was at the NCH on Friday night for the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Mahler 5, I didn't see any of my TirNaHiFi friends there so I am wondering if I just missed you?

Seán wrote:I was at the NCH on Friday night for the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Mahler 5, I didn't see any of my TirNaHiFi friends there so I am wondering if I just missed you?

I'm afraid I couldn't get a flight Sean... but I trust the concert was a great one? Should have been with that programme!!

I was there too (as discussed on FB). The Mahler 5 was glorious and it's great that the NSO brass is really up to this now: in the old days there would have been cracked notes all over the place, excruciating!

The President was there, presumably because of the occasion: the concert was celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the National Concert Hall. 30th Anniversary! I remember when it was new!! For an excellent six months or so they even had three huge pictures of mine on prominent display. Then apparently a nun (there used to be a lot of nuns in the audience in those days) complained about the nudity and they were moved out of the public area!! It was a temporary exhibition, so they would only have been there for about another six months anyway.

Because Mary McAleese was there we had a very brief version of "The Soldiers' Song" (our national anthem, Jared) and some truly awful thing with Liam O Floinn on uilleann pipes. After that normal service was restored and we had Mendelssohn's first Piano Concerto with Gabriela Montero (oddly, but not outlandishly dressed for a soloist). For her encore she asked the President to give her a theme ("The Last Rose of Summer") and improvised on it. Interesting!

Then the Mahler: nyom!!

Feckin' nuns, soon hopefully, there will be none!

I thought that the NSO were awesome last night, I enjoyed it immensely. The hall was packed, there were several young people there too, younger that Ciaran and me I mean, which was good to see. I even met ex-work colleagues too. It was a lovely night.

Alan Buribayev is a very impressive conductor, he conducts without a baton too.

I am glad that you enjoyed it lads. I had decided long ago not to attend for logistical reasons....I needed to get some sleep to be up to watch the RUGBY!!

fergus wrote:I am glad that you enjoyed it lads. I had decided long ago not to attend for logistical reasons....I needed to get some sleep to be up to watch the RUGBY!!

You would prefer an egg throwing contest to a live performance of Mahler's great Fifth Symphony!! Albert, what's wrong with our Fergus, is he sick or what?