Chamber orchestra in navan on thursday

The Irish Chamber Orchestra directed by Katherine Hunka is on the road this week and next (9th-19th July) with The Four Seasons Twice tour.

With its usual diversity, the ICO combines Vivaldi’s iconic Four Seasons with the passionate rhythms and sensuous sounds of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Whether you are a connoisseur of Vivaldi, a fan of Piazzolla, the ICO’s Four Seasons Twice is for you.

Vivaldi's Seasons are among the boldest of baroque music and are ever-popular. The guttural rasp on the viola in the central movement of Spring might represent the barking of the shepherd’s faithful dog, but birdsong, storms and zephyrs come across clearly, as does the shepherd’s weeping in Katherine Hunka’s plaintive Summer solo and the peasant’s inebriated lolling in Autumn. While Piazzolla quotes Vivaldi, Buenos Aires’s climate is mild without the drastic seasonal fluctuations of Venice. Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires are exciting evocations of the vibrant changing seasons in Argentina and describe the vagaries of human emotions. When it’s Summer in Vivaldi’s Venice, it’s Winter in Piazzolla’s Buenos Aires. Spring is just electric and propels this earthy work to a brilliant conclusion.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra visits Solstice in Navan (9th July), Mullingar (10th July), Birr (11th July), Roscommon (15th July), Kilkee, Co Clare (16th July), Waterford (17th July), Monkstown, Dublin (18th July) and Rathkeale, Co Limerick (19th July).