Unholy Haikus, Great Glee and Brilliant Buskers

What a Sisyphusian task directors of school choirs undertake.  No sooner than they have rolled the metaphorical boulder up the hill and achieved their task of moulding their young charges and and coaxed   gorgeous sounds out of them, the ungrateful so and sos leave to pursue other avenues and they must begin all over again with a bunch of new recruits. I met  , Björn Johansson from Sweden  conductor of fine Vocal Ensemble of Risbergska High School and  he remarked that although he had visited Cork International Choral Festival  several times in recent years, his current choir were all entirely new to the festival.  They were just one of 100 or so choirs with a staggering 5000 participants  visiting Cork for the annual singfest in the Leeside city .  


I arrived at City Hall, Cork  in the midst of festival fever  in time to hear the afternoon segment of the post primary schools' competition on Thursday. The large space looked surprisingly intimate with the house lights dimmed in the auditorium. There is something about the sight of all those assembled earnest  young faces singing as one , that I find very moving and gives me hope and cheer for the future. How wonderful to see Ben O Hanlon lead his splendid De La Salle Waterford boys' choir, sadly one of a only a handful of all male  choirs in the schools' competition. But my highlight of the day was seeing and hearing the 100+ strong Colaiste Muire Choir from Ennis led by conductor Carmel Griffin.  'Is there a schoolgirl left in Ennis today?' a patron remarked as the enormous choir, twice the size of any other ensemble took to the stage, a logistical feat in itself.  Singing a modern work by Rhona Clarke and  The Blue Bird by Stanford , the choir were simply sublime.  In some ways, young choirs achieve a form of perfection that young instrumental ensembles rarely do, their artlessness adding rather than detracting from their renditions.  Judge Shane Brennan,  in his summing up expressed a wish that the participants would continue to raise their voices in song when the left schooldays behind them. Hear, Hear!

listen to ‘Carmel Griffin the director of Colaiste Muire school choir talks about it's activities’ on Audioboo

The King's Singers 

Later in the evening, a packed Opera House lapped up the stylish  close harmonies of the all male sextet, The King's Singers . Sadly I missed the first set but I caught the second which consisted of lighter fare of pop and folk song arrangements and opened with a long humorous pastiche piece by Paul Drayton  It was a bit like being offered a gorgeous pudding when really you're in the mood for steak and chips. In our overamplified era of concert experiences, it is cheering to see a large auditorium  in thrall to a small ensemble of unamplified accappella voices. Amongst the afficionados, were many  movers and shakers on the local and national music scene.  It was a good week for Cork Opera House with Ballet Ireland  attracting a very good house on Monday night to their minimalist production of Romeo and Juliet .


Cork streets abounded with buskers not particularly part of the festival but no doubt drawn by the buzz in the city.  My favourite was Damien Guilfoyle playing a real honky tonk piano on the corner of Caroline Street . It is not often you hear Beethoven followed by Boogie Woogie. Have a listen to him on the audioboo.

Listen to ‘Piano Busker Damien Guilfoyle in Cork City’ on Audioboo

The Triskel Arts Centre is a elegant ecclesiastical space with a stunning interior just a year into operation as a live music venue and it was packed on Friday for a free lunchtime performance by   Ensemble Vocal, just one of many free events in venues all over the city during  the course of the festival. Later in the day, The National Chamber Choir, one of a very few professional vocal ensembles in Ireland  attracted a good following to St Finbarres' Cathedral for a highbrow choral event featuring a premiere of the winning entry of the Sean O Riada Composition Competition, Two Unholy Haikus by Frank Corcoran among other contemorary Irish works. 






Outside the main events, my sources tell me that great fun was had at the late night sing songs  around the lobby piano at Festival Club in The Clarion Hotel with ceili dancing lessons in the generous foyer space as part of the informal cultural exchange.  My brothers appeared  at the more informal Atrium sessions as members of community choir, Voices of Cork and jolly good they were too! 
You would have to be delighted for the first prizewinner of the Fleischmann Prize, Ateneo Glee Club, all the way from Manila in the Phillippines .   Check out their festival performance here . Forget your sombre black and white , these  are  what I call  costumes.

Prize Winners Fleischmann Trophy Begun under directorship of Aloys Fleischmann in the 50's , the Cork Choral Festival has always been a unique and special event with an international dimension.  I feel my musical year is not complete without a visit to some of the events.  It manages the rare feat of being inclusive and accessible to   community choristors  while also catering for the elite of the choral world.  I asked Bjorn Johansson if the figure of 65% participation in choirs by the Swedish population was accurate and he confirmed that it was about right. I wonder what the Irish statistics are.     Bravo to director John Fitzpatrick  who appeared to be ubiquitous during the festival  for his excellent stewardship  of this remarkable festival . Looking forward to 2013 already .  Amidst all the chanting, another Cork  festival was launched at the Bodega last Thursday. I am looking forward to www.corkmidsummer.com  in June . Launched in fine style by Cork's own favourite songbird, Cara O Sullivan and what better number to launch a summer festival, Gershwin's Summertime of course Ensemble vocal GERMANY Effortlessly Love Flows (No. 1 from Ecstatic Meditations) Text: Mechthild of Magdeburg AARON JAY KERNIS (1960- Der Falke (op. 93a, 5) (The falcon) JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897) Deh, come invan sospiro (Sixth Madrigal Book – 1611) (Ah, how I sigh in vain) CARLO GESUALDO DA VENOSA (1566 – 1613) A new song of love (Text: Song of Solomon) SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM (1942-) Ubi caritas et amor (Where charity and love are, God is there) MORTEN LAURIDSEN (1943 -)

Gadding about at Ennis Book Club Festival

 





Ennis Book Club Festival Mascot





 I had an early start at the Ennis Book Club Festival and joined the 40 or so early revellers for coffee, buns and papers at the elegant  space of  the Rowan Tree Cafe  with it's walls adorned with literary themed paintings.  There were some very striking ones by Jean Regan. The one shown here recalled for me Amhran na Leabhair  or Cuan Béal Inse by Tomas Rua about the shipwreck and loss of a schoolmasters book collection.  Colette Reddington was our host and guided the groups through a loosely structured conversation  around books . At my table were Marie and friend from Connemara and Helen a librarian from Donegal. Colette expertly exrtracted nuggets of conversation from various tables and offered them for general savouring, Topics included, 'the most contentious title and 'to Chardonnay or not to Chardonnay'.  I thought this was a neat event and anybody coming alone was easily  included in a group discussion and it was terrific value at €5 for coffee, a bun AND a newspaper courtesy of local newsagent, Kellys.
There was a sharp dose of realism as  a young Clare Champion prize winner read her  prize-winning short story based on the gritty topic of underage drinking . There was no denying the power and strength of her writing but it was a little too sobering for me at this time of the day and I remain painfully conscious  of the tragedy besetting  a UCC undergraduate last year, a contemporary of  my own  young son .

Brian Mooney launches poetry collection of Brendan O Beirne

Although I had every intention of attending 10 Books You Must Read at Glór, I was sidetracked by the sign at Colaiste Muire  'IABS'  indicating the presence of singers, lots of them, and of the barbershop variety. I met my friend Regina Gilley a member of the Champagne Corks and drifted about various workshops where coaches were drumming in the same message, 'connect with the words and put your heart and soul into it.'   

I got back on the book trail at  a lecture by Éibhear Walshe at the Temple Gate where he made  good case for the forgotton novels of Katherine Cecil Thurston, Paul Smith and the early work of MJ Farrell,  aka Molly Keane.  He gave an interesting account of the life of Cork born,   Katherine Cecil Thurston nee Madden, a highly successful writer in the early part of the 20th century. How extraordinary that she had two books simultaneously on the New York Time's best seller list in 1905, the first time any author had achieved such a feat.  I wondered if there was any family connection with our host  family at the Temple Gate Hotel?
 


Chatting with Mrs Walsh



When I get around to reading books again I certainly will dig out The Fly on  the Wheel on Dr Walshe's recommendation.  Paul Smith was another author I had not heard of and his book Annie published in 1972 was recommended .  Molly Keane's early novel, Two Days in Aragon was the third book recommended in the lecture. Eibhears own memoir, Cissie's Abbatoir is an enjoyable read particularly for those of us who shared his  puddle grey Waterford mileu.  A beautifully produced note  sheet bearing the classy looking  Book Club  Festival logo was distributed to accompany the lecture and I am grateful to have it to hand to recall some of the details used in this post.

Éibhear signs his memoir Cissie's Abbatoir

I   found this venue a little  warm and stuffy in the the afternoon. There was quite an amount of background music  that was irritating  and patrons further back reported problems hearing the speaker.  We enjoyed catching up with fellow Déise man Eibhear following the lecture and had a chat with his mother  about our school days in Waterford and reminisced about student concerts in the Municipal Theatre.



 



The highlight of the day for me  was the posthumous  launch of a collection of Brendan O Beirne's poems,  Reality The Graveyard of Dreams by The Three Legged Stool Poets . Friends of the poet gathered to talk about the poet and to read many of the poems.  I reprised the air, The Coolin that  I had played when I had joined the late poet as a guest at a monthly gathering last year. I was delighted to meet Marcia, his niece who had accompanied him that day and Deirdre, his sister who had hosted his last birthday party.  As always I was glad to share in the sense of collegiality amongst this group of writers and honoured to contribute something myself to the occasion.

Well done to the members of the Festival Committee.   There was much to enjoy in the  events that this excellent niche festival had to offer and great credit is due to this hard working  group under chairperson Ciana Campbell  who bring such an enjoyable weekend of letters to our corner of Clare.



The late Brendan O Beirne



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