Hungarian Feast on a Famine Ship: New Ross Piano Festival

A famine ship and a grand piano seem unlikely co-stars. Add in a distinguished Hungarian diplomat, a pale young man in concert tails and a flock of starlings perched in the rigging as unwitting extras and the scene looked like a setting of a classy spy thriller.  I was on the Dunbrody moored on the River Barrow, Co Wexford for the launch of the 13th New Ross Piano Festival. This year, there is an emphasis on Hungarian repertoire and artists  in the weekend concerts. This year,  artistic director with his formidable team are scheduling  some jazz piano events. Heavyweight on the international scene Enrico Pieranunzi will be in New Ross on Wednesday. Check him out on the video above.
 I was pleased to meet chairman, John Kissane who said he particularly loves the chamber music element of the festival. There are loads of attractive programmes and an impressive roster of emerging and established talent in daytime and evening concerts. Check out the details on the festival website www.newrosspianofestival.com. After a few well chosen words by the Hungarian Ambassador, Istvan Phally, there was a little piano music from Sean Morgan Rooney and director of the festival Finghin Collins. As the last notes faded out over the river Barrow, the starlings with a whoosh abandoned the riggings and flew away,. no doubt to return to St Mary's Church when the festival proper begins.

Body and Soul My Foot ! Electric Picnic 2012

Electric Picnic survival kit

Best Stage Set   The Body and Soul Main Stage at The Dingly Dell so pretty- shame about the background noise 
Best Large Act   The Killers  Laser beams, moving images  and rockin anthems
Best Solo Artist  Van Dyke Parks   Masterful piano playing, wistful lyrics 
Best Spoken Word Event Salon de Chat at Leviathon tent So simple, such  fun
Best Tent Event  Staff Benda Bilili at Cosby Tent Wheelie good Latino and R&B rhythms

Best Food:  Bia trí Gaeilge Black pudding and bacon . Druid Chef , Rory Morahan at Puball Tent





The sun made a prolonged guest appearance on Sunday at Stradbally, Co. Laois for the annual open air music festival tempting me to make my first foray to the Electric Picnic. Was it fantastic?- an envious pal enquired ? Well-- like the proverbial curate's egg,  Yes and No and good in parts

Wood creatures

Yes: the grounds are beautiful and the site is impressive in scale, incorporating several distinctly themed areas. A crescent of big top tents is the first sight you see on entering, not quite so vital or tempting when the sun is shining but cheerful none the less.  Very pleasing on the eye also are the giant garden features  dotted everywhere amongst the plethora of performing spaces giving  the site a theme park atmosphere . You can have a massage, hang out in the Gameletron or watch dancing waiters in the Hurly Burly Cafe in the Body and Soul area  and I liked  the 50's themed Trailer Park presided over by giant wicker foxes.

 I spent the early part of the day in the Mindfield, a  cosy collection of small tents devoted to the spoken word. A frivolous Sunday morning panel of RTE chat show folk in rather  un-pc weekend banter mode was actually more fun than I would like to admit and at least, Colm O Regan, creator of @Irishmammies, twitter phenomenon and Des Bishop's distinctive hybrid tones diluted the Dublin 4 ones a tad. Dublin Gospel Choir in the Hot Press Tent were charming but star of the Mindfield was Druid Chef Rory, Morahan who  extolled the virtues of Celtic Cuisine as Gaeilge with great gusto while cooking tasty bacon and black pudding treats. Maith an fear thú Rory.

LAPD photo Irish Times 

Giant Tulips 

Druid Chef Rory 

Van Dyke Parks 

And the bad? Well while there was no mud and the ground was delightfully firm under foot,  gloop of a different kind manifested itself from early in the afternoon as  the aural equivalent of mud, a relentless loud drum beat like opressive thunder,  pervaded the atmosphere  quenching  less robust sounds.  The wonderful veteran songwriter's Van Dyke Park's lovely delicate piano playing was masked and his vocal introductions barely audible .  Even the folk quartet LAPD with heavyweights, Irvine, Lunny  Liam Og and Paddy Glackin were no match for the aural sludge. As I was driving  away, Barry Egan was musing on Today FM how Paul Buchanan's soft gentle piano backed vocals fared given that he was on at the same time as the Killers. Well Barry- it wasn't the Killers that murdered  Paul's set in the Dingly Dell but the ogre of a heavy pulsating beat  emanating from pair of dance tents  incongruously located in the heart of the Body and Soul area.  Not very Zen at all ! There was no escaping the boom-boom  as the audience fled to to the front of the Dingly Dell Stage

Staff Benda Bilili    photo Phillip Ryall 

No delicate vocal lines to worry about on the main stage as the  Killers had the crowd on their feet and singing in unison as a proliferation  of laser beams lit up the night sky , a feat Elbow in the  twilight  hadn't seemed to manage.   Finally at last, midnight and  time to go but there was one surprise left. On the way out, we were drawn to the lively rhumba rhythms coming from the Cosby Tent.  Closer inspection showed that most of the Congolese group, Staff Benda Bilili were in wheelchairs or on crutches.  Overheard as we left, 'best gig of the whole weekend ' a punter remarked. Hear Hear!


Overheard at Electric Picnic 'The scallops were huge!'  

'Listen to This' author and more at Galway Arts Festival

Familiar look to headliners

Alex Ross 'Pale Vampire' Aula Max NUIG
Galway Sinfonietta at Bailey Allen Hall
Tara Connaghan and Derek McGinley at Monroe's
An Aural Visual Affair by the T'ang Quartet St Nicholas Church 

On swift sail flaming From storm and south He comes, pale vampire Mouth to my mouth.

from Ulysses Joyce 

Wedged in between the departure of the yachting  crews and the arrival of the horsey set, Galwegians  play host to an annual arts festival and I paid my first visit  on Saturday.

Alex Ross of The New Yorker

It was quite a coup for GAF to secure prestigious writer and trail blazing  music blogger, Alex Ross on his first visit to Ireland. At NUIG, I wondered whether I had the right venue for a celebrity lecture as the largest group in evidence was a wedding party taking advantage of the photogenic  quadrangle and the festival signs were unassuming to say the least . I pressed on in hope of finding a buzzing literary hive and plumping for one of a selection of doors to the Aula Max, I entered to find myself in a lobby space with not so much a feel of a lively mix zone as a vaguely disconcerting sense of a staff common room before I was directed back outside  to the 'students entrance' of the upstairs lecture hall.

Tiernan Henry, lecturer in Geology at NUIG, gave a warm introduction to, Alex Ross,  author of Listen to This and The Rest is Noise  and music critic of the New Yorker, brandishing   a  copy of the 1999 magazine containing his essay ,  The  Wanderer on Bob Dylan. Anticipating his next book, Ross delivered a  paper, outlining some resonances in James Joyces' work with Wagnerian operas with particular reference to Ulysses and the |Flying Dutchman.   Ross's  passion  for the language  of literature shone through particularly in this live experience as he effortlessly peppered his talk with quotations  from a diverse range of sources including poetry by Douglas Hyde,  and the English translations of Wagnerian operas from the Carla Rosa Opera Co archives, regular visitors to the Gaiety in Dublin.  A fellow attendee remarked to me that the scale and diversity of cross  references in Ross's work are reminiscent of  the Wagnerian tome, Ulysses itself.  Despite Ross's efforts, the event felt a bit flat, with an air of a specialist post grad seminar rather than a buzzy mainstream literary event.  The venue with its huge elegant windows at each end  was rather large for the assembly and we could have done with  firmer anchoring to steer the event to a fitting close. Where is David Norris when you need him.

Nearby in the Bailey Allen Hall, the community orchestra, The Galway Sinfonietta,   performed a free concert under the umbrella of the Galway Fringe Festival. Opening  with a saxophone concerto by Glazunov  featuring Bertrand Fougeres and including works by Finzi, Romberg and Dvorak, there was a good attendance to support  the group conducted by John Roe. Anxious not to miss the first part of the  T'ang Quartet's presentation, I arrived just in time at  the packed St. Nicholas's  church and found a seat near the front all the better to appreciate the cinematic effects of the entertainment. However, maybe suspecting that less resilient  audience members might  slope off to the pub after the Buster Keaton segment, the order of the programme had been reversed to that advertised  and we had an hour of 20th century string quartet repertoire before the heralded cinematic element.

T'ang Quartet

 The cellist, Leslie Tan of the Singapore based ensemble gave cheerful introductions to  the items setting the context of the works drawing on less than cheerful  themes of funerals and  the Chinese Cultural Revolution. While quartets by Sallinen and Bright Sheng were well received as you might expect in  a city that boasts its own resident quartet and there was some thrilling string playing and a sense of joyful  communion within the ensemble,  it was rather too rich   for my palate . The score accompaniment by French composer, Baudine -Jam to the 1921silent classic, Haunted House was delightful and indeed there were peals of laughter in the aisles of St Nicholas. However for an event titled An Aural Visual Affair, the item  was all too brief with a running time of 15 minutes or so and one would have thought with the projector in place, we might enjoyed  another in the same vein. It was a bit like advertising a three course meal by leading with the promise of pudding.



I caught some of Tara Connaghan's and Derek McGinley's lunchtime session in Monroe's. Tara is well known in Clare as a former county Arts Officer. The duo, exponents of a Donegal style of fiddle playing, mixed jigs and reels, slow airs mazurkas and waltzes adding some personal anecdotes  for an appreciative audience. Both of them speak here  of their route in to fiddle playing and the role of family members in developing their skills.


Related posts


Movies at the Christchurch Cathedral Morgan Cooke and Faust


Wagner/ Joyce from Alex Ross' blog The Rest is Noise

Guest blogger: Waterford Festival of Learning, Hurling, Blaas, Wine and Song

Festival Junkie Mark Graham with Wanderly Wagon

My guest blogger today is Mark Graham, who is on a mission to cover three festivals a week for a year. I met Mark at Waterford Writers Weekend last month  (you can read his report a Bookish Bonanza Down the Desise  here which includes my contribution)  I always enjoy reading Mark's reports and admire his enthusiasm both for the festival trail and the recording  of the events via his blog.  Last week  he was in his home territory, Waterford, the town in which I grew up. Deise folk are very good at  finding synergies in their activities and  running festivities diverse in range and extent and my blog frequently features events in the South East. The Spraoi  Festival with a weekend of free street entertainment is one of my favourites and indeed, the Spraoi team have become nationwide parade specialists.

 Mark features several  star performers here and a pleasing diversity of activites. John Mullane is the first sports person to feature on my blog and  will need no introduction to GAA followers. For those of you who aren't, Mullane is one of a group of indefatiguable Waterford hurlers known for his passion and 100% commitment over a decade to the county team.  Malcolm Proud may not be so familiar but is a a world renowned harpsichord player and organist . Based in WIT he frequently travels all over Europe to perform in the most prestigious venues collaborating with elite ensembles. His recital with Roisin O Grady was one of my highlights of 2011. Mezzo  Bridget Knowles also features, most recently as soloist in Come the Sails, a choral extravaganza launching the Tall Ships Festival, (also featured in the year's highlights)
Blaas may not be the most distinctive of culinary delights but I notice the exclusive 5 sar resort hotel, Doonbeg Lodge  features them on their menu.
Thanks for the report Mark. It makes me wish I had been there.! You can read the full report and keep up to date with Mark's progress on www.ayearoffestivalsinireland.com

T

Hurling, Blaas, Wine and Song – Waterford Festival of Learning

POSTED BY FESTIVALMONKEY ⋅ MARCH 28, 2012 ⋅ 2 COMMENTS

 All three festivals were based in Waterford, that’s where my stationary bed and shower are. Waterford Writer’s Weekend provided the main distraction but today and yesterday, I got to the Waterford Learning Festival. I’m going to be straight here, I didn’t expect much from this festival, a few basket weaving classes or something. I was wrong. The list of events that you can get to over the three days is diverse, interesting, fun, worthwhile, practical and best of all… FREE! How d’you like them penny apples Billy Cullen? Clown workshops, cocktail making, edible seaweed foraging, giant chess, beauty and hair tips, poetry classes, golf coaching, concerts, exhibitions, laughter yoga… get the picture? There’s a lot going on and let me tell you once again… it’s all free!

First up on Tuesday was a lunchtime recital by Bridget Knowles (Mezzo Soprano) and Malcolm Proud (Piano). Who performed two song cycles – seven Spanish folk songs (Siete canciones populares Espanolas) by Manuel de Falla and 7 Shakspeare Songs composed by Madeleine Dring. These are two performers at the very top of their game. I’m no expert when it comes to this kind of music, but the dexterity, fluidity and skill displayed by both performers was impressive. As impressive was the ease with which they performed together – an ebb and flow between both performers that was as natural as the gentle waves that were lapping the beach in an unseasonably sunny Tramore that afternoon. The sun shone on the leafy grounds of the WIT College Street campus and The Cuckoo performed by Bridget and Malcolm fit perfectly.

Three events jumped out at me from the Festival of Learning programme. A wine appreciation class (free grog), the blaa making class (free grub) and the training session with hurler and All Star Legend – John Mullane (cos it had Mullanimal in it!).  Now Gabir butty (my Indonesian subscriber), you may be wondering what a blaa is, and in fairness to you, there are probably some readers from Donegal wondering the same thing. It’s a specific type of bread, only found in Waterford. “Is it like a bap?” is a common question that usually earns a crack on the head with a hurley and a slap on the arse with a crystal salmon. It is nothing like a bap, it’s a f&@kin’ blaa, right!? We don’t have much, so don’t mess with our blaas. The blaa has an ancient history, at the end of the 17th century the Huguenots travelled over from France and on board their ships were a particular strain of goat. The goats fell overboard near Billberry hill in Waterford. These goats had the recipe for this particular type of bread cake and they began making them in their new home. These bread baking goats were so unique that they are now a protected species and they still make the blaas of Waterford to this day. Or something like that…

Blaas straight from the oven

I ducked into the Introduction to Wine class and they were in full swing, discussing Beaujolais and the like. I have to be honest here too – I never got wine. Chateau du Clonmel is about where my palate is at. I’ve been in France more often than I’ve been in Fermanagh. I’ve had garcons sit me down in an effort to try and educate me, but alas, to no avail. Beer, cider and buckfast. I can’t help it, I’m a classy dude! But I get that some people have a taste for the stuff and if you have that taste, this was the place for you. There were a good few bottles teed up, cheese, grapes and slivers of apple for cleansing the palate. But there were also buckets for spitting into. Sacrilege! Swallow, don’t spit. Wha?

Wine tasting

If only school had been like this!

I headed up the road to St. Pauls School on Browne’s road, where there was a hurling training session open to young teenagers. No ordinary training session – John Mullane was taking it. Who is John Mullane? Get out, you’re barred!

 d up the road to St. Pauls School on Browne’s road, where there was a hurling training session open to young teenagers. No ordinary training session – John Mullane was taking it. Who is John Mullane? Get out, you’re barred!

John Mullane 

Will Smith me arse! Mullane is Legend.

After a couple of months rest, Mullane returned to the Waterford Senior team last Sunday and helped secure a valuable one point win over Galway. It had been a pretty dismal league performance up to that. To say that I have an interest in the exploits of the Waterford Hurlers is a understatement akin to saying that Shane McGowan needs a couple of fillings. I’ve given up a good deal of things in order to head off to 3 festivals a week for a year – blossoming relationships haven’t come to flower (jaysus, call Mills and Boon!), quiet weekends are non-existent, I stopped playing with two bands and time with family and friends is scarce on the ground. But what’s been killing me over the past couple of months is I haven’t gotten to one league game… and I have a feckin’ season ticket! End of rant  John was in good form and the young lads seemed to be turning it on for their new coach. I was impressed by John knowing the young fellas names as he shouted encouragement to them from the sideline.

John Mullane 

Words of wisdom for the lads

It wasn’t difficult to imagine how the young fellas felt to have John Mullane coaching them, I was excited too! A great opportunity for young lads to get to meet, train and interact with one of the best hurlers in the country.

Tomorrow there is an edible sea-weed hunt out at Kilfarassy Strand and it promises to be a fantatic day for it. I won’t be able to make it out for the Dilisk foraging, but I would if I could. The purpose of the festival is to celebrate learning, highlight the learning opportunities in the City and to show how enjoyable learning can be. Job done! Back on the festival trial tomorrow night, bigging up the French culture – grub, jazz and a little bit of the aul parlez vous. Until next time…

Voyages Sécuritaires, Ne Meurent Pas. 

Authors, Actors and Anglophiles: Ennis Book Club Festival 2012

Authors and Actors ; Kevin Barry, Sean Rocks  & Reid Banks. 

Alain de Botton  @alaindebotton

 

We read a lot less than we might - because we still often can't find our way to the books that truly speak to us.

In  Ennis, the weather was unseasonably mind with only an odd shower to dampen the enthusiasm of the annual influx of literary types mostly of the female variety who arrived in the Clare county town for the annual Ennis Book Club Festival.  A feast of authors and avid readers mingled at a variety of events to suit a wide range of tastes. 

Literati

For me. the highlight of the festival was the Saturday night readings by Lynne Reid Banks and Kevin Barry and the interviews with Arena anchor Sean Rocks.  Both authors demonstrated a strong instinct for the dramatic . Lynne Reid Banks was a repertory actress in her early career and clearly has not lost her knack for making a dramatic entrance. Rocks' own  impeccable sense of timing owes something to his thespian background  and the question was raised about Barry's leanings towards playwriting as he clearly relished the dialogues in his texts.
The format was one to one interview punctuated with readings and film clips. One sensed,

Interview suite :Nice to see the projector put to good use

particularly with Reid Banks that Rocks could happily have gone on discussing  books with this feisty octagenarian as  they quickly established a rapport and  she was genuinely touched that he had read her books, most of which sadly, are now out of print. Kevin Barry's highly entertaining reading of his much lauded novel, City of Bohane  brought out the humour, leavening a  bleakness in his text and he came over as being pragmatic, unpretentious and  grounded by years of  journalistic endeavours in less glamorous spheres of human activity .  His short story  Killary Fjord  apeared recently in The New Yorker and  features a would be poet turned hotelier  suffering from writer's block and a collection of utterly believable, but  far from lovable local characters  The story is from a soon to be launched collection Dark Lies the Island  and we also heard  an autobiographical piece on a theme resonating with another great Irish writer McGahern. For Irish writers' there is no place like a Barrack's home it seems. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/10/1

The unpredictable   Q and A was wisely forgone leaving patrons free to put their points at the post reading signings in the foyer. The Book Club award went to a Helene Granon's book club from Nimes,France whose members are devoted to English titles.

Sunday Symposium

                                                                                   At the signature event, the  Sunday Symposium,   Catriona Crowe overseer of the wonderful census projects gave interesting  insights into the work of an archivist and Michael Harding was a very beguiling storyteller even if his rather too robust defence of fellow county man, Sean Quinn didn't find much empathy with his audience. Manchán Magan in a declamatory style reminiscent of student debating societies, made some rather sweeping statements that the chairman Caimin Jones wisely didn't allow him too much time to expound on . The panel was completed by novelist Christine Dwyer Hickey

Classy handouts

Other events  we attended included  Books and Buns at the Rowantree Cafe a sort of literary table quiz with poet Tom Conaty as quizmaster. There was time for a musical turn and my air on viola was Amhrán na Leabhair, a lament for a school master's library lost at sea. Peter Murtagh read from his travel diary of the popular pilgrimage route, the  Camino, although there was some disappointment among the younger cohort that daughter Natasha had not made the expedition to Ennis leaving no opportunity to guage firsthand  the level of teenage enthusiasm for the long trek . The Old Ground Hotel was the venue for a lunchtime theatre presentation of  Oscar Wilde's Portrait of Dorian Gray .

Check .

Everywhere the talk was of books as festival goers searched for the perfect book to take back to their book clubs. As in previous years there was much to provoke discussion, thought and to entertain.  Bravo to the committee who already are hard at work on the 2013 festival. Looking forward to it already

Elegant Rowan Tree Cafe

Listen to book club founder Sam Lonergan talk about her experience at the festival in the audioboo below

listen to ‘Sam Lonergan Glasnevin Book Club’ on Audioboo


                                                         photos Eamonn Ward via www.ennisbookclubfestival.com 

Irish Times Review Ennis Book Club Festival 2012

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Witches and Pirates at Waterford International Music Festival




Theatre Royal lobby

 







Malcolm Proud

  



 Following fast on the heels of the Imagine Arts Festival, my home town Waterford cements its reputation as a good town for music and arts  with the  welcome return after  a two year absence of  the annual celebration of musical theatre, the Waterford International Light Opera Festival. Now  in its' 50th year,  rebranded as Waterford International Music Festival and incorporating not only shows at the magnificently refurbished Theatre Royal but also a fringe festival including the all pervasive gospel choirs,  concerts and a school musical section .