NSO: Debussy, McNeff, Rachmaninov

Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune

Stephen McNeff The Celestial Stranger [Irish Premiere]

NSO co-commission with BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2

Melodies pour out of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, one of the great orchestral love songs. Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune is a spellbinding portrait of a faun on a blissful Spring afternoon. Stephen McNeff’s song cycle The Celestial Stranger, composed for Gavan Ring, conjures in its Irish premiere a 17th-century mystic’s vision of aliens visiting Earth and falling under the spell of ‘this little star, so wide and full of mysteries’, only to realise that dangerous shadows are falling across the fragile blue planet.

Tickets €25, €29, €34.50, €39