Earthquake in Krakow:

photo Wojciech Wandzel

I'm on my first visit to Poland. There was a nip and the smell of smoked sausage in the air when I arrived early on the overnight train from Prague and the horses drawn carriages were just beginning their first circuits of the Stare Miasto . The attraction is Misteria Paschalia, a week long festival dedicated to early sacred music with events taking place nightly in various venues around the historic city. The programme last night featured the exhumation of a 'sepulchro', a  rare sacred opera by a 17th century Italian composer unknown to me, Antonio Draghi. First performed in Vienna, Il Terremoto is described in the handsome programme notes as being a 'a Hallowed Play for the Holiest Sepulcre of Christ in the Most Magnificent Chapel of her Holy Roman Majesty Empress Eleanor'. The experience was like seeing a Fra Lippi, Renaissiance painting come to life with an early music sound track provided by the elegant and spirited playing of the combined forces of Polish and French Baroque ensembles, Arte dei Suonatori and La Poeme Harmonique under Vincent Dumestre. A terrific ensemble effort, among the most unusual voices heard was that of  counter tenor Domenique Visse. I loved the sound of the wire strung harp and I've never seen a viola de gamba player play his instrument like a lute before. The setting, the chiaroscuro lighting effects, the costumes and the dramatic performances  made this quite unlike any oratorio experience I've had to date. Superb!

As I conclude, the Virgin Mary, the Centurian, San Giovanni have just got into a taxi outside my hotel. It seems like a parallel universe to see the performers in civies.

Limerick's Handel for the President

        How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things



There is nothing like a presidential presence to pep up the sense of occasion and there was  a capacity house at UCH Limerick when President Michael D Higgins arrived with his entourage for the performance of  Handel's evergreen oratorio,  Messiah by Limerick Choral Union and Orchestra. Considering that there must have been a plethora of  Messiahs in spitting distance of the Áras, it was quite a coup to have an tUachtaráin in the house. This was the third time that  I have had the pleasure of performing this work with the Choral Union and on this occasion, although all the soloists (all with strong connections to the region), aquitted themselves well and the orchestra  played with suitable brio it was the choir themselves who stole the show.

Malcolm Green

The 100 strong choral ensemble  fired by the enthusiasm of their director sang tunefully and with great attention to dynamic contrasts in the many wonderful choruses.  My seat in the string section of the orchestra, embedded in the delta of the tenors and the quadruple reeds of Michael Dooley's bassoon and Peter Plunkett's oboe, was a good vantage point to hear  the inner voices of this glorious work (once the boys had completed the ritual grousing about the aforementioned reeds). And also to observe the lovely sense of rapport  between the conductor Malcolm Green and his solid chorus, which appeared to harbour no passengers but sang with verve and enthusiasm throughout. Their audience was remarkably hushed throughout as if totally in thrall to the spell cast by the performers with a minimal amount of seasonal throat clearing.

Stuart O Sullivan's continuo was the solid lynchpin it needs to be to glue this work together, varying the sound occasionally to organ to good effect and Will Palmer's soprano trumpet was suitably  splendid,  filling the large auditorium with bright thrilling sound.

President Higgins

A comprehensive and well produced  programme was available with printed  libretto, biographies, notes on the LCU's history, photographs and context of the work and conveyed a sense of the volume of manpower and effort involved in mounting such a production.  Audience members lingered in the foyer for a considerable time after the performance savouring the sense of occasion .*

'Messiah, like the celebration of Christmas, is sufficiently rich and complex to speak to a range of human needs and emotions, irrespective of its' immediate Judaeo-Christian framework'  
from programme note by Dr. Paul Collins

Previous posts featuring LCU 

Report on LCU's performance of Jenkin's Stabat Mater 2010 

Best gigs of 2010 

* ( It seems a pity that UCH doesn't encourage patrons to linger following performances with bar and café closed )