Two fine groups come together for this exciting double bill. The Spero Quartet play Mozart’s dazzling D major quartet K.499 and Garth Knox’s brilliantly inventive ‘Satellites’ and for the second half of the concert, they join the Vanbrugh for Tchaikovsky’s epic string sextet Souvenir de Florence.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra revisits David Fennessy’s remarkable and ethereal Hirta Rounds evoking memories of Scottish islanders leaving their homes of many centuries. The charismatic Florian Donderer gives an emotive perform of Haydn’s Violin Concerto – an all-time favourite with is its radiant outer movements flanking an exquisite Adagio. The ICO concludes with Dvořák’s sunny and genial Serenade for Strings, one of his best loved works. A rich melody and optimistic mood are at the heart of this life affirming serenade. This ICO showcase is another romp of pure, unadulterated joy!

Feelings of nostalgia and longing pervade the music for this attractive programme for clarinet, voice and piano which draws together three of Ireland’s most versatile and acclaimed musicians: Sharon Carty, mezzo-soprano, John Finucane, clarinet and Finghin Collins, piano. From the rhapsodic opening bars of Brahms’ late clarinet sonata to Mozart’s operatic fireworks, the programme also includes deeply passionate German songs by Brahms and Spohr and miraculous settings of Yeats and Joyce poems by Muriel Herbert and Rebecca Clarke. At the centre of the programme is “Music of the Hours”, a new work for clarinet and piano by Irish composer Anne-Marie O’Farrell which reflects on the experience of praying the monastic hours.