Join Paul Herriott live from the National Concert Hall as the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra presents two glorious presentations of music in its most emotional and expressive form: the deeply personal and moving music of Elgar cello concerto, and Franck’s dark complexion Symphony in D minor, a work of mature ardor – watch the concert above, and download your digital program here.

Maestro Mihhail Gerts makes a welcome return at the helm of the RTÉ NSO along with Camille Thomas, the first cellist signed by the venerable Deutsche Grammophon label in 40 years, whose “impressive virtuosity seems effortless” (The Strade).

One of the glories of English music, Elgar’s signature cello concerto is a virtuoso rollercoaster ride for the solo instrument and a masterpiece of technical dexterity that weaves cello and orchestra together with a sublime lightness of touch. Exquisitely elegiac in tone and as direct and direct as it is complex and profound, it is illuminated by wisps of diaphanous beauty in a deeply private and confessional statement framed with all the nobility of straight-backed Edwardian property.

Anticipating the 200th anniversary of César Franck’s birth later this year, his Symphony in D minor may well be one of the best kept secrets in the orchestral repertoire. Cut from a different fabric, tighter than its ever popular organ symphony, he revels in Franck’s love for “the king of instruments”. The orchestra charged with imitating the sound of an organ is a moving demonstration of emotion in music that goes back and forth between despair, elation and return, with a middle movement emphasizing in a memorable the haunting, high-pitched call of a solitary English horn.