Gerhard Markson, principal conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, met with, and rose admirably to, such a challenge on 20 October at the National Concert Hall. In a merciless twist of fate, Markson had already endured more than the monumental problems of the score. The day before, his mezzo soprano was forced to abandon her role; the party line is that she took ill. The inside line tells a far more interesting tale but suffice for me to speculate that the lineup for Mahler 8 next May could be subject to changef The offstage brass parts in the fifth movement are only one of the interminable problems that the second symphony presents.

The conductor's directions are transmitted to a colleague offstage (in this case by video camera) who in turn conducts the trumpets or French horns for their entries. It's a frightening business; any number of things can go wrong in such a scenario.

Happily, all went swimmingly in this regard on the night and some fantastically virtuosic playing rendered the effect with ultimate poignancy.

Cellos and basses didn't set the work off to a terrific start but performances of significant note followed in the onstage proceedings, not least from the mezzosoprano replacement, Catherine Wyn-Jones. With her voice of pure gold, the fourth movement was spellbinding and spinetingling. She outdid her highervoiced counterpart, Franzita Whelan, in the fifth movement but the latter had done herself proud in Strauss's Four Last Songs in the first half. However, Markson was the hero of the night; he erred on the side of caution in the tempi of the second and third movements but who wouldn't when that tornado-like fifth movement is coming up.

Markson weathered that storm like a good sportsman. I told you . . . he's a thrill-seeker.

After the madness of this weekend, the besieged people of Cork will be in dire need of entertainment that involves neither jazz nor Guinness. The remedy is to be found in the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet, who begin their second tour of the season next Sunday, 5 November.

A charming programme of Haydn's Op 74, No 1, Mozart's 'Prussian' and Borodin's second quartet (that of the famous third movement Nocturne) make for an entirely accessible concert. Of the five host venues, the National Gallery of Ireland takes pride of place with a 3.15pm concert, followed by evening concerts in Cashel library (6), Kilkenny's Watergate theatre (7) and St John's theatre of Listowel (8) with a return to the homeland and to the ensemble's place of residence, Aula Maxima, UCC, on 9 November.

Speaking of renowned string quartets, the violinist from the Arditti David Alberman is coming to Galway this week and bringing equally renowned pianist Rolf Hind with him. Their respective reputations as soloists far precede these Britons, but as a duo, they have already met with great acclaim. In company with the violin/piano staples of the Debussy and Ravel sonatas and Bartok's Romanian Dances are two works at which Hind will be found to be particularly adept.

His own composition will open the concert, to be followed closely by 'Road Movies' by John Adams, with whom Hind has worked intimately, even to the point of being the American's pianist of choice. Music for Galway presents this concert on Thursday (2) in the Aula Maxima of UCG at 8pm.