A tragic love story is perfect for the drama of ballet and opera – if not for the story’s protagonists! Prokofiev’s ballet depicts the most infamous ‘star-cross’d lovers’ of them all, Romeo and Juliet, with music that is a brilliant realisation of Shakespeare’s play and some of Prokofiev’s most memorable and instantly appealing work, while Wagner’s Prelude from Tristan und Isolde is a lushly hypnotic, yearning depiction of two more tragic lovers, this time from Renaissance romance. Pianist Clare Hammond performs Kenneth Hesketh’s Uncoiling the River, a piece which loops round itself, sinuous and labyrinthine, and explores our perception of the passing of time.

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Star-Cross'd Lovers

Ulster Hall

The Priests performed their first musical collaboration in 1974, and in 2024, celebrate 50 years of musical association. Having achieved millions of record sales, received multiple awards, travelled the globe, and played countless concerts as The Priests, Frs Eugene, Martin (brothers) and David perform their last ever concert as a group at the Ulster Hall. The evening will see The Priests perform many of their classic songs including Ave Maria, Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art and You Raise Me Up with the prestigious Ulster Orchestra.

The Priests: Time to Say Goodbye

The joy of a gathering wind so a working ship can finally set sail and earn its passage. The lyrical, song-like lines of a solo violin that are melancholy as well as virtuosic and utterly intoxicating; so much so it is widely considered the best violin concerto of all time

Ulster Orchestra: Young Romantics

The Rat Pack, comprising Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., defined an era of entertainment with their charismatic performances, onstage chemistry, smooth vocals and undeniable charm. While their heyday was in the 1950s/60s, their impact endures with their music evoking a sense of timeless sophistication and cool that still appeals to audiences today.

Presenting: The Rat Pack

Waterfront Hall

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade sets a wild and windswept tone for a concert that ends with a symphony inspired by the ruins of the chapel at the Palace of Holyrood, full of fierce energy and which even hints at the inevitable and typical Scottish thunderstorm! Mendelssohn’s ability to depict landscape in music is fully evident here and the dramatic Highlands scenery that he enjoyed on holiday is sketched in magical style. Bringing a little musical calm to temper the storm is Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, who performs Mozart’s mellow and serene Piano Concerto No.27.

Highland Journey

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade sets a wild and windswept tone for a concert that ends with a symphony inspired by the ruins of the chapel at the Palace of Holyrood, full of fierce energy and which even hints at the inevitable and typical Scottish thunderstorm!

Ulster Orchestra: Highland Journey

Charles Ives described the opening of The Unanswered Question as a ‘cosmic landscape’ and this concert is very much rooted in landscapes of all types, from Ives’s exploration of the human spirit’s connection to the realm of nature to the pastoral idyll of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. Gavin Higgins’s Horn Concerto was written for our soloist, Ben Goldscheider, and is inspired by the Forest of Dean, where Higgins grew up. There are echoes of hunting calls and Wagner in a work that finishes with a movement uniquely inspired by the forest floor and titled Mycelium Rondo.

The Great Outdoors

Charles Ives described the opening of The Unanswered Question as a ‘cosmic landscape’ and this concert is very much rooted in landscapes of all types, from Ives’s exploration of the human spirit’s connection to the realm of nature to the pastoral idyll of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.

Ulster Orchestra: The Great Outdoors

Writing in The Guardian, Sir Stephen Hough’s reflections on Brahms’s First Piano Concerto conjure up the fire, intimacy, romance and drama of this phenomenal concerto, one that feels like it contains a whole cosmos in its three movements. It’s paired with a symphony by another composer whose works contain musical universes, Bruckner, as we explore his Symphony No.1.

Ulster Orchestra: Flame of Genius

Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ is a deep, contemplative drama based on the events leading up to the crucifixion and the earthquake that marked the moment of Jesus’s death. The music pulls us into an ominous and unsettled world; a lament at the foot of the cross. Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen for strings is another lament, this time for the destruction wrought in Munich in World War II and the shattering of cultural life as the composer knew it. Full of loss and anguish – but also serenity and majesty – this is music for meditation and reflection this Good Friday.

Music for Good Friday

This concert shines a spotlight on music filled with sumptuous drama. Strauss’s incidental music for Ariadne auf Naxos gives more than a flavour of its protagonists flitting across the opera stage. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 just pre-dates Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and it too brings all the poise and characterful drama of opera to the concert stage. Our second half moves from the world of opera to ballet, as Tchaikovsky finished his Third Symphony before writing Swan Lake and this work pirouettes with the kinetic energy of the corps de ballet.

Take the Stage

Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff are three giants of Russian music, and this concert foregrounds all their exceptional talents. Arensky uses one of Tchaikovsky’s Sixteen Children’s Songs to capture a range of moods and character, while Stravinsky’s Concerto for Violin is a feisty, joyful romp for the instrument, full of cheerful melody and musical wit. To close, a second visit to the no-holds-barred emotional world of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies (though you’ll have to wait until 2025/26 for Symphony No.3!) and the achingly beautiful, flamboyantly majestic Second.

Grand Masters

Was it, or wasn’t it, an act of defiance and bitter retort to Stalin’s displeasure? Shostakovich’s life was so utterly and constantly in peril that he could never publicly declare whether his Fifth Symphony was simply ‘a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’ or a satirical puncturing of the dictator, deliberately hollow but dressed as adulation. But either way, it’s a phenomenal piece of music – playful, poignant and magisterial, it’s a blockbuster end to the Season. Walton’s lyrically romantic Cello Concerto sets the scene for Shostakovich’s dramatic fireworks.

Orchestral events in Belfast

Star-Cross'd Lovers

Ulster Orchestra

The Priests: Time to Say ...

Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orchestra: Young R...

Ulster Hall

Presenting: The Rat Pack

Ulster Orchestra

Highland Journey

Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orchestra: Highlan...

Ulster Hall

The Great Outdoors

Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orchestra: The Gre...

Ulster Hall

Ulster Orchestra: Flame o...

Ulster Hall

Music for Good Friday

Ulster Orchestra

Take the Stage

Ulster Orchestra

Grand Masters

Ulster Orchestra

Act of Defiance

Ulster Orchestra