On Song: Larchet and Moore remembered at NCH



 

Songmakers at NCH photo Dan Butler

Two interesting song projects tempted me to make a trek to Dublin recently.  Both were brought to the platform

Promoter and Painist Niall Kinsella

by the seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm of artists who found  something new in something old. It is one thing to play well but to coordinate and manage all that needs to done in bringing an event to an audience is a big task list.  Back in January pianist Niall Kinsella presented a lovely recital of songs by John F Larchet with singers Raphaela Mangan and Gavan Ring. It seems extraordinary that these songs have not much been heard or recorded. Bernadette Greevy did include some in her repertoire but otherwise they have been little aired. The dozen or so songs were full of melody and winsome charm. I particularly enjoyed  Padraic the Fiddler. I have a copy of the sheet music with an optional  fiddle part but have never heard it performed   I gather that a recording is planned and I hope that it will include this version.  Niall Kinsella presents the next in his series on March 23rd when the theme is Songs of a Gypsy Life and features tenor Owen Gilhooly with string players, Lynda O Connor and Gerald Peregrine. The concerts take place at lunchtime in the John Field Room.


Moore Reawakened: Baritone Simon Morgan assembled a fine  roster of performers to join him on the main stage of the NCH in a programme of songs by Thomas Moore under the title Moore Reawakened We are used to hearing the songs performed with piano accompaniments as they might have been heard in the 19th century drawing rooms. Pianist Una Hunt had a big project (My Gentle Harp) using young opera singers from RIAM and DIT recently .  Here is Simon talking about his project on RTE Arena.

The Moorings merged the trad elements of Karl Nesbitt and Drazen Derek , Martin Tourish on accordion and jazz stalwarts Myles Drennan and Dave Fleming on bass. A total of 16 performers on the night  ensured there was plenty of variety. It was like a very classy sing song. The duets were some of the  highlights of the evening. Jack O Rourke sitting at the piano joined Morgan in a duet of the Last Rose of Summer and there was a lovely guitar accompaniment from John McGlynn of Silent O Moyle. Not everything worked as well as a bossa nova version of Come Oer the Sea but most of it did. Cormac de Barra's harp was somewhat submerged in the busier numbers and Eleanor McEvoy's rockabilly Oft in the Stilly Night was a bit too sassy for the gentle lyrics to bear. An album launch is due in April. I can't wait.

My Funny Valentine:Simon Morgan was in Waterford  with trumpet player,  Niall O Sullivan's band  Feb 14th. The show titled My Funny Valentine was entertaining easy listening stuff  executed with panache by the excellent band. We would have listened to Brian Connor on piano all  night. Rod Patterson on bass and Guy Rickerby on drums were admirably understated.  James Nash on guitar added a completely contrasting timbre. We  had the luxury of two vocalists and Shona Hennebry was impressive. It did have a jazz club feel to the presentation. We could have only enjoyed it more if we were sipping champagne while listening. So pour yourself a glass and  have a listen  to Shona and Niall for yourself here
 

September Preview South East Arts Events

Here we are in mid September and the skies remain blue and knowing that chilly winds won't remain at bay for much longer makes these days all the sweeter. Here are some of the arts events on the radar this month.


Waterford Music open their new season with The Dublin Guitar Quartet in the elegant Georgian Large Room at City Hall. Contemporary Composers Taverner , Part and Glass are on the programme. There will also be a masterclass at WIT on Friday morning.

David Hennessy Musical Society present Into the Woods. This is a new musical to  me by Stephen Sondheim.  Start time is 7.30pm Tues 16 to Saturday 20 at Garter Lane . I saw Seussical a couple of years ago from this group and it stands out in my memory as one of the zingiest productions of recent years.  I am expecting very good things from Hennessy and David Hayes.

Imagine Festival Launch:  25th This quirky multifaceted arts fest brigtens the gloomy dying days of Autumn. The launch takes place in St Patrick's United Church on Thursday 25th September  at 7pm. The special  guest is esteemed editor of the Irish Times, Kevin O Sullivan who hails from Tramore.

New Ross Piano Festival.  25-28th I haven't been at any of the previous 8 festivals and I am looking forward to finally visiting this festival dedicated to the piano. Artistic director Finghin Collins has put together an attractive programme of piano recitals, master clsses   and chamber music performances. The focus this year is on wind and the Cassiopeia Wind Ensemble feature. There are specially commissioned works inspired by the Ros Tapestry by five Irish composers . The concerts are scheduled from morning to late evening and a season ticket at €110 looks like a very good deal. Soloists include young guns  Lise de la Salle and Joseph Moog as well as Collins himself of course. Melvyn Tan plays the fortepiano which is apparently not the same thing at all as the pianoforte. The evening concerts feature several pianists in each programme not just a single soloist which should make for conviviality in this more  usually solo pursuit. If the soloists sound half as good as they look it will be fabulous. 

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.