Music for Galway: BBC Music Mag Cuttings

An extract from my review appears in the print edition of this month's BBC Classical Music Magazine.   You can read the full review on their website here http://www.classical-music.com/you-review/you-review-music-galways-midwinter-festival

Director of 'Music for Galway', Finghin Collins has a number of recitals coming up this weekend with Hungarian cellist Istvan Vardai, who returns to Ireland after  recent appearances with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Details below

March 21st 2015 8.00pm Castalia Hall, Ballytobin, Co. Kilkenny March 22nd 2015 12 noon Dublin City Gallery, the Hugh Lane March 24th 2015 8.00pm HP, Ballybrit, Galway

Beethoven Sonata in A major Op. 69 Brahms Sonata in E minor OP. 38 De Falla Siete Canciones Espanolas Shostakovich Cello Sonata Op. 40 with István Várdai cello  István Várdai is a very exciting young Hungarian cellist who recently won first prize at the ARD Competition in Munich. These concerts are presented by Music in Kilkenny, Dublin City Gallery Sunday at Noon concerts and Music for Galway respectively.

Soundtracks for Superpowers: Galway Mid Winter Festival

Note Jan 2016 : Looking back over the years' events, I noticed this report on the Galway Midwinter Festival languishing in the draft section.   This year's festival is  titled 'Captive Music from the Abyss' Read more about it here http://www.musicforgalway.ie/#!midwinter-festival/cyxe

Sunday, 18 January 2015, 15:00, Town Hall Theatre

HAYDN Quartet
SHOSTAKOVICH Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110
HAYDN Berenice che fai?
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 1 in C major, Op. 8 *
SHOSTAKOVICH Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11 * 

Tickets: €20. MfG Friends and Concessions: €16. Students (full time): €6. Festival Ticket: €55/€45 

I don't often get to Galway but a fine sunny day and an afternoon time slot and an opportunity to hear a range of top class performers in one fell swoop prompted me into making the trip from Limerick  and I was glad I did. Here is my review of the final concert of the Midwinter Music Festival. 

Review Midwinter Festival Galway

Soundtracks for Superpowers was the catchy  title for the Midwinter Festival in Galway , a weekend of chamber music performances juxtaposing two composers centuries apart whose work was inextricably linked to the powerful patrons they served.  In his second festival as Artistic director, Finghin Collins used the format which has served him well in the New Ross Piano Festival.  Rather than assign one ensemble to an event, a panel of high calibre performers participated in each performance thus imparting contrast of timbre and style. There was a convivial salon ambiance with Collins and his committee front of house to greet patrons and performers sat in the audience to listen to colleagues. These little things mean a lot.

What’s finer than a string quartet – two string quartets. On Sunday afternoon, the visiting Carducci Quartet were joined  by the home team, Galway Ensemble in Residence, the ConTempo for two pieces by Shostakovich.  Both quartets were well matched in their animated vigorous style of playing and it made a change to hear something more modern and robust than the Mendelssohn Octet.

Helen Kearns Soprano

Artistic Director Collins   Connaught Tribune 

The first half nicely set light against shade. The ConTempo  Quartet  opened with a playful  Haydn quartet, the Rider named for it’s jaunty opening bars. The quartet play with a unanimous energetic delivery that often sees them momentarily  lift off their seats.  The Carducci Quartet  are soon to  embark on performing all fifteen Shostakovich quartets around the world.  On Sunday we heard their  committed performance of the mighty eight, the most popular,  inspired by the destruction of Dresden in WW2. The young  quartet  delivered  the three solemn  largos with a degree of gravity and poise that conferred an almost  palpable stillness on the auditorium.

It was unforgettable! Thank you! @FinghinCollins @CarducciQuartet @HSOPKEARNS @GalwayMusicRes pic.twitter.com/f7ZpjDN8Zu
— Music for Galway (@musicforgalway) January 18, 2015 

A regular in opera houses in France and Spain, it was good to hear Irish soprano Helen Kearns perform here.  She brought out the drama of conflicting emotions in Haydn’s vocal piece, Scene from Bernice in a rich but controlled coloratura voice.  With a virtuoso pianist shaping the programme, it is no surprise that piano featured prominently over the weekend.  On Sunday , Collins was joined by Bogdan Sofie and Adrian Mantu of the ConTempo  in a spirited  performance of the youthful Piano Trio in C . The festival was officially opened by the Russian Ambassador.  All ten performers took to the stage at the Town Hall Theatre  for a communal final bow at the close of a stimulating event.

The Carducci Quartet launch their Shostakovich 15 project  at the Curtis Auditorium, Cork  Jan 29^th as part Cork Orchestral Society Series .

If you like the sound of this programme, check out the New Ross Piano Festival in September 

Cultural Events to Banish Post Festive Blues 2015

Grand Opera House 

 Mid Winter is a time when I retreat to the sofa and wrestle for domination of the remote control. But this will pass and  I enjoyed putting together this round up of cultural events to tempt culture vultures off the couch. My selection  appeared in the print edition of the Irish Examiner  on Friday 2nd January.
Arts Events Selection for month's ahead.

 Here are some further  suggestions.


Opera in Belfast .
I visited Belfast for the first time in decades back in the September  and was impressed with the scale and elegance of the city centre and the many venues. With a journey time of less than 2 hours by bus to Dublin, it is closer than I imagined.   I have a yen to see some opera in the Grand Opera House with it's splendid red brick Victorian facade.

 In February, Northern Ireland Opera present  Richard Strauss’ potent late Romantic setting of Oscar Wilde’s play based on the biblical femme fatale, Salomé.

Belfast-born Giselle Allen sings the title role of the bloodthirsty Princess .  Nicholas Chalmers conducts the Ulster Orchestra in this new production directed by Oliver Mears. There is more opera at the venue when English touring company Opera North  brings two rather more genteel   productions , to this historic venue

Opera at the Grand Opera House www.goh.co.uk

Salomé   Strauss 6-8 Feb

Marriage of Figaro Mozart  Mar 19^th and 21^th

La Travaiata Verdi Mar 18 and 20^th 

Special Consensus at Sixmilebridge

Superpowers in Galway

Festival of Youth Orchestras NCH Feb 7th

RTE Philharmonic Choir celebrate 30 years 

Roll Over O'Beethoven

Rod Goodall  narrator in Music for Galway's Beethoven: Genius, Passion & the Irish Connection

Osiris Trio
Charlotte Riedijk, soprano
Rebecca Capova, piano
Robin Tritschler, tenor
Rod Goodall, narrator 

Music for Galway presented an impressive  pool of international artists in a weekend of celebration of the life and works of Beethoven. But It wasn't the promise of 'Genius' or 'Passion' that had me  bound  for the last event  titled 'The Pulse of an Irishman' at the Town Hall Theatre. Nothing out of the ordinary there as concert programmes go  but rather the words Beethoven and Irish on the same line of the mini festival's title, Beethoven : Genius, Passion &the Irish Connection .  Not something you see too often.

The afternoon concert opened with some chamber music. Rebecca Cápóva delivered Eleven Bagatelles Opus 119 with precision and verve and  we heard a fine rendition of the  Ghost Trio played by the Osiris Piano Trio from the Netherlands.  So far , so continental. The Irish connection came after the interval in the form of a set of songs and a dramatic reading of Beethoven's letters in translations by a local Galway academic, Emily Anderson  Although Thomas Moore is generally accepted to have been the major player in bringing  Irish songs to a world wide audience, I was surprised to learn that the Teutonic titan  had a significant part in improving our cultural image in 19th century Europe when he accepted a commission to arrange  a collection of Irish airs from George Thomson, of the Scottish Board of Encouragement of the Arts. In a talk  'Beethoven and Ireland' , given to Radio Eirinn in 1947 John Hennig reports that it was actually poet Robbie Burns, one of a dozen poets engaged to provide lyrics, who pointed out that many of the melodies were in fact Irish and persuaded Thomson they would be more 'saleable' marketed as such .   A sum of £100 was agreed for Beethoven to extend his work on a set of Scottish airs and duly  in 1814 'A Select Collection of Irish Airs for the Voice united to characteristic English Poetry written for this work with Symphonies and Accompaniments for the pianoforte, violin and violoncello composed by Beethoven' was published in Edinburgh.  Beethoven must have seen a European market for them as Hennig tells us  he reserved the European publishing rights for himself. Although Beethoven requested the words so he could 'effect the correct expression' but he did not have them to hand when composing the accompaniments which seems extraordinary ..

            Och! I have you not heard, Pat, of many a joke

That's made by the wits 'gainst your own country folk;
They may talk of our bulls, but it must be confest,

That, of all the bullmakers, John Bull is the best.

Robin Tritschler

Judging by the ten songs we heard on Sunday afternoon, it seems 'The Pulse of an Irishman' as any  showband musician will tell you beats most often  in triple time.Some of the melodies were  familiar from settings by Moore and popular folk songs . The melody for  Oh My Dear Dermot was  that of Moore's Avenging and Bright  and  the lively tune of  Bhios La PortLairge turns up  unexpectedly in He Promises Me at Parting. The humour and rhythm of English Bull reminded me of  a Percy French   or even Gilbert & Sullivan number, the genteel drawing room lyrics playful and at times sentimental.  The vocal delivery of soprano Patricia Reidijk (looking splendid in red taffeta)   didn't quite match the frivolity of the lyrics of the opening  Elfin Fairies  and she was at her best in the more wistful numbers.  BBC New Generation Artist, Robin Tritschler's style seemed effortless and nicely understated , no more so than on No More My Mary. Like  delicious sweets I felt a twinge of regret when the song set  was all unwrapped  and felt I could have enjoyed a few more which is not exactly the emotion I felt  when I last got to the end of the 9th Symphony. What sets the songs  apart from the Moore arrangements are the elegant and sophisticated violin and cello lines. It seems the complexity of the arrangements was the subject of some argument between the composer and commissioner but Thomson seems to have been very happy with the collaboration and had this to say in the preface

'If Carolan the Irish Bard would raise his head and hear his own melodies sung with Beethoven's accompaniments,  he would idolise the artist who could produce such exquisitely coloured and highly finished pictures  This is flattering to the melodies of Ireland and will be received no less favourably '  

The proceedings opened with a presentation of a commissioned sculpture by John Behan to the outgoing artistic director of Music for Galway, composer Jane O Leary for her dedication over 32 years to the society. There are not many artistic communities who claim have such  continuity in their stewardship. Pianist Finghin Collins is to take over as new artistic director and we wish him well in the role.

To Jane O Leary
'Thank you for your artistic vision, inspiration and dedication to Music for Galway' 

Who we met : Pianist Jan Cap had travelled from Cork to support his daughter Rebecca.. We met Pádhraig Campbell,  environmental campaigner in the very spacious and elegant cafe space upstairs. Cellist Adrian Mantu updated me on the Con Tempo's next engagement in Headford on Thurs. I had a chat with Robin Tritschler who spoke about the exciting  opportunities to perform unusual repertoire that were coming his way by virtue of being a BBC New Generation Artist.  Britten's Illuminations and  a teenage work Quatre Chansons Francaises are in the pipeline. We met  board member Ludmilla Snigireva  and Executive Officer, Anna Lardi Fogarty of the MfG committee who was clearly delighted with the weekend and  busy wrapping up the formalities and bidding adieu to the the festival goers in the foyer. We liked  the  afternoon time slot making it possible to travel to and from Galway by bus during daylight hours. 

.@fidleir got paid a lot more for those songs than @royalphilsoc gave me for me Ninth Symphony ;-)
— Beethoven Bust (@Beethoven_Bust) January 30, 2013

Curtain Call Artists with Director Jane O Leary

Elfin Fairies
No more, my Mary
Judy, lovely, matchless creature

They bid me slight my Dermot dear (duet
 Oh! would I were but that sweet linnet (duet)
English Bulls 
Oh Who My Dear Dermot 
He promised me at parting (duet)
The Hero May Perish 
By the Side of the Shannon 

Related Articles 'Listen to This' Author at Galway Arts Festival

'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.


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Movies at the Christchurch Cathedral Morgan Cooke and Faust


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