Irish and European Elements Delightfully Intertwined - Centenary Gala at Wigmore Hall

A version of this report has been shuttling around various editors' in boxes over the last ten days and has not yet appeared in a print slot. So better late than never, here is my report on a wonderfully entertaining and historic event in London last week. 

Gala Concert at Wigmore Hall: A 100 Years of Irish Culture in Britain  *****

Performers at the Wigmore Hall Gala Concert  photo Simon Jay Price 

HE Daniel Mulhall photo Simon Jay Price 

'Centenaries are useful signposts in the landscape of our collective memory'.  With this pithy observation, Irish Ambassador to Britain, Daniel Mulhall opened an eloquent address at the Wigmore Hall, London's prestigious chamber music venue . The evening was the centrepiece of a week of events at the Victorian hall celebrating a century of Irish culture in Britain.  Over half an hour, the ambassador roved over the cultural landscape of the last hundred years in the context of the political upheavals of the Rising and WW1,  referring to many writers, both modern and retrospective.  Musicians, Aloys Fleischmann Snr and Jnr with roots in Cork and Bavaria were referred to as typifying the intertwining of Irish and European culture. Sport wasn’t side lined with the GAA cited as Ireland's most important sporting body -' Its continued success is one of the legacies of the tempestuous decades prior to the attainment of independence in 1922.' You can read the full text of the ambassador's reflective address here 100 Years of Irish Culture Daniel; Mulhall at Wigmore Hall

The concert which followed was broadcast live on RTE LyricFM, BBC radio and streamed live online. The performers featured a quartet of Ireland's finest young singers with pride of place given to mezzo soprano, Anne Murray together with Finghin Collins, the RTE Contempo Quartet and ensembles from Dublin’s RIAM and London’s RAM. During the concert, Ambassador Mulhall  presented  Murray with a Wigmore Hall Medal in recognition of her long and distinguished international career. ‘She personifies everything that is great about this hall. We salute her commitment to the song recital as a concert going experience’ said John Gilhooly.

 The European classical tradition was exemplified by an all Schubert selection.  An impromptu played by Finghin Collins served as a starter before a selection of nine of Schubert's best loved lieder. Murray dressed in an emerald green gown began with An Die Music . Tenor, Robin Tritschler joined her for a lovely duet, Licht und Liebe. Gavan Ring took a night off barbering duties as Figaro in Dublin. His selection included a dramatic rendition of the Die Erlkonig.  Ailish Tynan added the familiar Ave Maria but in an unusual German version. With a name resonant with the Irish history, clarinettist, Michael Collins joined Tynan for one of the highlights of the first half, The Shepherd on the Rock. Tara Erraught also on a night off from Rossini closed out the first half with a cheerful Serenade augmented by a male quartet from the RAM. 

The second half opened with Gerald Barry’s String Quartet No 1, a work begun in 1985 and revised for the occasion. One felt it wasn't quite the Wigmore audience's cup of tea but it was lively and interesting and the tricky harmonic sections were well executed by the RTE Contempo Quartet.   We heard a  miniature by John Field, arguably Ireland's most famous 19th century cultural export.

John Gilhooly: Arts Manager Extraordinaire  Simon  Jay Price 

If the first half had the ambiance of a 19^th century Schubertiade, the second was a hooley in the parlour.  Having displayed their prowess at highbrow repertoire, the ensemble let their hair down with a selection of favourite Irish songs/ Two poignant Francis Ledwidge settings struck a sombre note among the cheerful drawing room ballads. The Ships of Arcady and A Blackbird Singing were most expressively sung by Robin Tritschler, a former BBC Young Generation artist.  The hard working accompanist, Jonathan Ware did justice to Michael Head's intricate piano arrangements.

'What did you most enjoy' I asked a 
gentleman in the next seat sporting a green tie for the occasion. Gavan Ring's barn storming rendition of The Kerry Dances had reminded him of his aunt from Kerry. It was her party piece, he said.
After the formal proceeding, a jolly party continued in the Wigmore Hall Bar where the Guinness was flowing and the canapés were every bit as good as you'd expect. There were informal addresses
by the Ambassador and  Mary McCarthy of Culture Ireland. Anne Murray replied to thank all for the accolade and the warm wishes and in self deprecating fashion recalled her first appearance the hall during the first round of the Ferrier Competition.

Where the Céiluradh event at the Albert Hall in2014 missed the mark in the stated aim of celebrating Irish Culture in Britain, the Wigmore Hall Gala Concert succeeded elegantly. It was terrific occasion, a night of words and music to remember and to be proud of. Maith sibh go léir!

Listen to Baroness Julia Neuberger on her experience at the very special @ireland2016 @wigmore_hall gala concert. https://t.co/1cjR2yjs3B

— Embassy of Ireland (@IrelandEmbGB) April 30, 2016

***********************************

Missed it ? Available to watch free online https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/wigmore-hall-live/live-stream

Related post: Ceiluiradh at Royal Albert Hall Some Musings  http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2014/04/ceiliuradh-royal-albert-hall-some.html

Gala Set List 

Beethoven Irish Songbook Revisited in Kilkenny

Back in 2012, I heard some of Beethoven's Irish songs at a Music for Galway recital.  My report is here. I was intrigued to think of Beethoven wrestling with Irish airs in the midst of a  Europe at the height of the Napoleonic wars.  Another opportunity to hear the songs presented itself at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and I reported on the event for the Irish Examiner. The article  appeared  on 16th August. As it did not appear in the online  edition,  I present it here.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8tZsiLja6jUTUFpMkgyTlM1R1k/view?usp=sharing

Beethoven’s Irish Songbook Revisited  *****    published in The Irish Examiner 16th August 

The confluence of elegance of 19^th century  art, music and architecture made a performance titled The Irish Songbook  in the Long Gallery, Kilkenny Castle a feast for both the eye and the ear. Presented as part of the Beethoven Quest strand of Kilkenny Arts Festival, the performers featured four contrasting voices with the Fidelio Trio.

Although Thomas Moore is generally accepted to have been the major player in bringing Irish songs to a worldwide audience, Beethoven also had a part in improving our cultural image in Napoleonic Europe when he accepted a commission to arrange a collection of airs from Scottish publisher, George Thomson. Reports state it was the poet Robbie Burns, who pointed out that many of the melodies were in fact Irish and persuaded Thomson they would be more 'saleable' marketed as such and  duly, a selection of airs with accompaniments for piano trio  was published.  Although Beethoven requested the words so he could 'effect the correct expression'  he didn’t have them and this may have contributed to the songs’ dubious reputation. The late Tomás O Súilleabháin embarked on substituting the original texts with more suitable alternatives. It was these texts we heard in Kilkenny in a selection of  17 of a total of  72 revised settings.

Mezzo soprano, Alison Browner opened proceedings on a savvy humorous note, When I was a Maid, before adapting her rich creamy tones to draw out the melancholy in Moore’s, How Dear to Me the Hour. She was followed by Eamonn Mulhall whose light and airy tenor was just right for the sentimental lines of Burns, O Stay Sweet Warbling Woodlark. Soprano Aoife O Sullivan’s rendition of Burns, The Catrine Wood was all winsome  charm. There was a quiet murmur of approval for baritone David Howes’ first solo contribution, a setting of Byron’s love poem, The Kiss, Dear Maid . There were duos, trios and to finish, all four took to the platform for a jaunty, Quick We Have But a Second. The Fidelio Trio put a degree of light and shade into Beethoven’s  Ghost Trio. The performance was marred only in that they were out of sight to most in the long space and would have benefitted from a platform.

In the words of Thomson, these songs were rather like the paintings and tapestries lining the Long Gallery, ‘exquisitely coloured and highly finished pictures’.   Superb!

 Eugene Downes was eloquent and clear in his opening introduction. Margaret O Sullivan and Mary Scarlett were present to hear the results of  their fathers lifetime project of presenting the songs with  alternative texts.   A major DIT project  resulted in the release of a 4 CD set of the 72 songs and a special performers edition will be  published shortly. The songs were the subject of radio documentary with broadcaster Liz Nolan and you can listen back here .

While I enjoyed the songs on both occasions, I can't say I was that struck by the superior quality of the revised settings. I was amused at Moore's lines of 'When through the piazzetta' which rhymed with Ninetta. but to be fair that was not representative. I must also admit to a twinge of misgiving.  If Moore with held the lyrics in his lifetime  much to the chagrin of Thomson  to preserve them for his own project, is it  quite fair to appropriate them after his death?  What is really terrific,  both in this volume from DIT and in Una Hunt's 6CD  collection of Moore's Melodies, are sound recordings  of many of the young emerging  Irish voices.  Most of them would not be recorded at this point in their careers were in not for these two substantial endeavours.