Dean Power James Hurley at Garden Room Medieval Museum
The Spring season of Waterford Music recitals kicked off with an unusual collaboration of two impressive artists, neither heard in the city before. Under the title 'The Great Irish Poets' Songbook', Clare tenor Dean Power and Canadian pianist, James Hurley presented a programme of classic Irish poems set to original music by Hurley with a sprinkling of familiar settings. Hurley's original music was captivating, skillfully crafted with complex harmonies and played with élan. Power gave an ardent performance, singing the texts from memory, no mean feat for a substantial programme of new material. It was refreshing to hear a fresh take on familiar texts and marvelous to hear a tenor voice of this quality in Waterford. A minor quibble,-I would have liked to have heard the first half Joyce songs sung as a set without spoken asides and applause breaking the mood.
Opening with a setting of WB Yeats' Easter 1916, the songs leaned towards the lyrical and elegiac with plenty of room for the intricacies in the piano counterpart to come through. The haunting mood was leavened with jaunty renditions of traditional numbers, Eileen Og and Star of the County Down. The programme finished with a rumbustious Newfoundland folk song, Sarah. We heard seven songs from Joyce's Chamber Music of which my favourite was Golden Hair. There was a little hesitation about the choice of encore but they finished with a lovely treatment of another Joyce text, Gentle Lady Do Not Sing which best fitted the prevailing mood of the evening.
With the Mary Strangman Room closed for renovations, the recital took place in the Garden Room of the Medieval Museum. I liked the subdued lighting, the acoustic was good and suited the parlour-room style presentation of the recital.
Friends since Dean Power's decade at the Bavarian State Opera, they chatted to the audience and each other about the collaboration. While the duo have performed in Ireland and in Hurley's native Newfoundland, the project is still in development. Waterford has a strong connection with Newfoundland going back to the 18th century. The city is twinned with the capital St Johns, so it seems apt that we should at last welcome a Newfoundland native to join the roll call of performers here. (More about the Waterford Newfound connections here via WIYP.) I think the project has great potential for further performances particularly with Ireland and Canada's strong cross cultural links and would have particular appeal to the Irish diaspora. It merits a mainstream recording. See what do you think? Have a listen to some of the songs on the Soundcloud links below.
Fanny Parnell and James Joyce among the poets featured.
Bravo gentlemen! Well done to the
voluntary Waterford. Music committee who work hard to bring great musical events to our city. Check out their forthcoming recitals here https://www.waterford-music.org/
Have a listen to the duo's recordings on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.
com/james-hurley-274071616/sets/great-irish-poets-songbook.
I also enjoyed listening to Hurleys's solo improvisatory compositions on Spotify . Check out his album Nightscapes in the link . Perfect for late night listening. James Hurley Nightscapes
https://youtu.be/qfsitg31bHQ?feature=shared The Salley Gardens Youtube Power / Hurley
Easter 1916 WB Yeats
Five Songs selected from James Joyce's Chamber Music: Strings in the Earth, Deeper Blue, Watcher of the Skies, Star, Golden Hair
The Last Rose of Summer,
Star of County Down trad arr Hurley
Requiescat Oscar Wilde
Eileen Og
Hold the Harvest and After Death Fanny Parnell
cool is the Valley, Dark Wood, , Noise of Water
Salley Gardens trad
Lake Isle of Inisfree WB Yeats
What Council, Arise , My Dove from Joyce's Chamber Music
Sarah Newfoundland Song
Encore Gentle Lady Do Not Sing
Sad songs about the end of love;
Lay aside sadness and sing
How love that passes is enough.
Sing about the long deep sleep
Of lovers that are dead, and how
In the grave all love shall sleep:
Love is aweary now.
