Irish Chamber Orchestra returning to Birr for a very special Christmas concert

AFTER wowing audiences during Birr Festival of Music earlier this year, the Irish Chamber Orchestra will return to Birr for a very special Christmas concert in December.

Christmas with Muireann, in collaboration with Birr Festival of Music, will take place on Thursday 15 December at St Brendan’s R.C Church on Wilmer Road at 7.30pm.

This fabulous festive showcase sees the Irish Chamber Orchestra join forces once again with one of Ireland’s finest voices, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh for an evening of Christmas cheer.

Muireann will celebrate the tradition of candle-lighting with her delivery of Tá Coinnle an Linbh Íosa alongside the ever-popular Don oíche úd i mBeithil. You can also enjoy her jazzy execution of The Wexford Carol alongside the ethereal Coventry Carol.

Katherine Hunka and the Irish Chamber Orchestra will swing into season with Sibelius’Andante Festivo, a taster from Handel’s festive Concerti Grossi Op. 6 before setting the scene for Winter from Vivaldi’s popular Four Seasons.

Muireann’s rendition of Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas and a final Christmas tune from the Irish Chamber Orchestra will close out a magical evening!

Full-throated and hymnic, Sibelius' Andante Festivo is a piece which is constructed as a smooth, continuous stream of similar melodic phrases that flow into and out of each other. Sibelius was a violinist himself and knew how to compose for strings. A "seamless repeated melody" is played by the strings and answered in the last four bars by the timpani, in an almost religious statement in a world before a Second World War.

Handel's Concerti Grossi are extremely diverse and in parts experimental, drawing from every possible musical genre and influenced by musical forms from all over Europe.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons were composed around 1718 to 1720 when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua.