Ulster Orchestra – Distant Shores

Take a step out of the everyday and visit worlds of the imagination.

A new Ulster Orchestra co-commission from Michael Gallen, Bád on Alltár, translates as ‘Boat From Beyond’ and is a fusion of Irish Traditional and classical musics, drawing on the Celtic idea of the ‘thin veil’ between reality and the otherworld, bringing something new and previously unimagined to change our lives.

In Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye, we look into the world of much-loved fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast and Tom Thumb. 

Kenneth Hesketh’s arrangement of Lili Boulanger’s Three Pieces for Piano takes us to two imagined gardens and a cheerful parade, while Debussy’s Nocturnes evocatively depict the procession of clouds across the sky, the bustle of a festival and the sea-songs of the mythical sirens, all inspired by paintings by James McNeill Whistler.

Ravel Suite: Ma mère l’oye
Michael Gallen Bád on Alltár (UO co-commission)
L. Boulanger (orch. Hesketh) Trois Morceaux
Debussy Nocturnes

FIONA MONBET CONDUCTOR
MICHAEL GALLEN VOICE/PIANO
MARIA RYAN VOICE/FIDDLE
DÓNAL O’CONNOR VOICE/FIDDLE
MUIREANN NIC AMHLAOIBH VOICE/FLUTE
BELFAST PHILHARMONIC CHOIR