things to book in galway

First Love by Samuel Beckett
Town Hall Theatre, Monday March 18
Samuel Beckett wrote this semi-autobiographical story in French in 1946, but it remained unpublished until 1970 and unperformed until now. First Love focuses on a first love affair, and the primary loves that influenced Beckett’s life and writing- his dead father, his delight in language, and his profound need for isolation. The 39 year old narrator looks back to when he was 25 and talks about the eviction from his childhood home, his life as a vagrant in Dublin and his meeting with his first love ‘Lulu’. He tells of their romance by the canal, of the room offered by Lulu and of the tragic events that follow.

This production, by the Gare St Lazare Players of Ireland is directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett and performed by the acclaimed Beckett actor Coner Lovett. Last on tour with The Good Thief by Conor McPherson, Gare St Lazare return to the Molloyesque world of Beckett’s early prose with this novella. The Gare St Lazare Players have toured internationally with their unique presentations of Beckett’s prose works. Actor Conor Lovett has performed 16 Beckett roles in over 23 productions, one of Ireland’s most respected actors he is due to begin work with theatre legend Peter Brook in October 2008. Director Judy Hegarty Lovett has 15 Beckett titles in her repertory, spanning prose, theatre and radio drama.

In this production, the narrator, expelled from the family home upon the death of his father, takes refuge on a bench by a canal but is later saved by Lulu. It is a dark and reflexive play, exploring the themes of love and loss and follows the story of a tragic man. First Love is a masterpiece of Beckettian perversity and emotion, a deceitfully simple love story of a curious kind, excellently delivered by Coner Lovett.
Tickets are €18/€15 available from the Town Hall Theatre

RTE National Symphony Orchestra
Leisureland, Tuesday 11 March, 8pm
The RTE National Symphony Orchestra returns to Galway next month with performances of pieces by Wagner and Beethoven. Together with these classical heavyweights will be Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor. Bruch wrote of composing his first violin concerto: 'It is a damned difficult thing to do; between 1864 and 1868 I rewrote my concerto at least half a dozen times, and conferred with many many violinists before it took the final form in which it is universally famous and played everywhere.'

Brilliant prize-winning young violinist Alina Pogostkina plays one of the most popular concertos of them all in her début with the RTE orchestra. Pogostkina has competed with success in several international violin competitions. She won the 1997 Louis Spohr Competition and in 2005 she won first prize at the Ninth International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, as well as a special prize for the best interpretation of the Sibelius Violin Concerto. The programme also features Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony and Wagner's Tannhäuser overture.

The Pastoral Symphony was composed simultaneously with Beethoven's more famous—and more fiery—Fifth Symphony. It was premiered along with the Fifth in a long and somewhat under-rehearsed concert in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on December 22, 1808. Although the Sixth Symphony contains some of Beethoven's most beautiful writing, the crowds had been wanting another bold and adventurous work, and the relatively calm and introspective composition was not wholly to their liking.

Since this inauspicious beginning, however, the work has become one of the central works of the symphonic repertoire. It is a favorite of many listeners and is frequently performed and recorded today. Gerhard Markson, who has appeared at such prestigious festivals as the Berlin Festival Weeks, Colorado Music Festival and the Hong Kong Festival, will be conducting on the night. Tickets are €20 for general admission, €16 for members and €10 for students.