Tonos are a very fine duo specialising in early music comprising soprano Roisin O Grady and baroque guitarist Eamonn Sweeney. They have just launched a new CD and are on a nationwide tour. I heard them yesterday at Castalia Hall Co Kilkenny in a recital of great charm and grace. I commend them to you.
Remaining Tour dates are here
7 October 2015 – 8pm, Kaleidoscope Night, Bello Bar, Dublin €14. www.kaleidoscopenight.com
11 October 2015 – 1pm, East Cork Early Music Festival, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Tickets available from: Pro Musica 20 Oliver Plunkett St, Cork. www.eastcorkearlymusic.ie
21 October 2015 – 8pm, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Wicklow. www.mermaidartscentre.ie
Composer Patrick Hawes talks about his choral work Song of Songs MIC Choral Society Spring Concert at Redemptorist Church, Limerick Song of Songs Patrick Hawes Requiem John Rutter Soloist Carmel Conway
The Redemptorist Church was filled with a hush of quiet anticipation with a hint of apprehension at the all modern programme chosen by choirmaster, Paul Collins for the annual concert of the Mary Immaculate Choral Society. The ensemble was augmented by the Redemptorist Church Choir and accompanied by the Limerick Baroque Players. While Rutter is a familiar name in choral music, Patrick Hawes was new to me . The Song of Songs were beautiful tonal settings of six texts of love poetry selected from the Old Testament, 'expressing desire. hope , confusion and joy'. It was almost but not quite the Irish premiere of the work published in 2009**. I note that the composer himself conducted the work with the Louth Choral Society earlier this month . Review here
The harp was placed in a central position splitting the string orchestra in half making a visually pleasing tableau. Soprano, Carmel Conway's voice soared effortlessly to the higher registers above the sparse string lines and there was some lovely duets between Ken Rice on violin and soprano.
The Requiem by John Rutter was written in memory of the composer's father and first performed in 1985 . Of the seven movements, the setting of the psalm 130, De Profundis was particularly striking The influence of the English Romantic tradition was heard in the cello solo played with great feeling by Tara-Lee Byrne which struck the sombre tone before the choir crept in with the words -Out of the Deep.
The choir delivered the texts with a good range of dynamics and a satisfying firmness of attack in the rhythmic sections and the tone sounded rich in this acoustic. The audience lingered for a quite a while to savour the evening . The concert was introduced by Fr Adrian Egan who reminded the congregation that the occasion was one of reflection and dedication to mark 150th anniversary of the opening of the Redemptorist Church.
** Correction. Mea Culpa. I assumed that the concert referred to in the article was a concert from Louth Contemporary Music Society, Ireland which has a track record of programming major contemporary composers . I was mistaken and I am grateful to the composer for the clarification that the concert referred to took place in Louth in Lincolnshire and not in Leinster as assumed . And indeed the event on Sunday was the Irish premiere of the work , Song of Songs by Patrick Hawes and all the more auspicious for that.
Who we met : We enjoyed talking to Bernadette Kiely , director of music at St John's Cathedral about the music selected for the recent episcopal events and tenor Stephen O Shea on the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the Limerick Choral Union.
I was just in time to catch the second half, featuring a Bach harpsichord concerto and an energetic Vivaldi concerto featuring very fine spirited ensemble playing from three violin soli and the famous Air in G to round it off. A single viola , a cello (spikeless) and violone completed this baroque ensemble.
There was healthy house for a midweek evening and the many aficionados included members from both the RTE Academica and Van Brugh Quartets. The audience lingered in the foyer to discuss the finer points of th evening. I missed the Bach concerti but the superlatives were flying around the foyer cognoscenti. (You can get a flavour in the video below.)
Rachel Podger John Finn Photograpy
Lunchtime Baroque Violin Recital at UCC
The Aula Max in UCC with its vaulted timbered ceiling and latticed lining of bookshelves seemed altogether a more suitable venue for a Baroque programme and it was good to see the venue full to near capacity for a daytime solo violin recital by Rachel Podger. In the absence of printed programme notes, she introduced the pieces herself in lovely clearly enunciated tones which I always feel has more impact and helps to establish the friendly rapport between the performer and audience. Smiling broadly, she projected a very sunny disposition.
Aula Max at UCC
She began with a Telemann Fantasia and concluded with the Bach Partita in D minor , with a piece by Biber as a filling She made a case for violinists to perform the final ciacconna as part of the complete partita rather than as a stand alone piece. While the playing was very elegant and precise, the lightness of touch in the dance movements particularly the giga, gave me the more pleasure Even in her highly skillfull hands all those 4 string crossings might sound ok on richer register of cello but seem to go on for much longer than the 13 min duration and sound too much like a very long study for my taste. Overall my impression was that Podger's style seemed a little more genteel than Huggett's more rumbustious delivery.
Modern day vs period instruments is a hot debating point in music forums. While the period instruments sound more mellow, would enjoy these performers just as much on modern day instruments? I believe I would. East Cork Early Music Festival is celebrating 10 years of bringing luminary performers in this field to Cork county. I commend them on this achievement and look forward to future performances.
Venue Notes The Curtis Auditorium while very comfortable and acousticaly sound, is not an intimate auditorium and with the house lights remaining up throughout the evening, the attention to period detail in instrumentation was not echoed in the lighting . It would aid concentration to have house lights dimmed and warmer more mellow lighting on stage.
7 October 2015 – 8pm, Kaleidoscope Night, Bello Bar, Dublin €14. www.kaleidoscopenight.com
