Waterford Chamber Music Festival at Mt. Congreve House and Gardens

 

Waterford Chamber Music Festival: Mt Congreve House and Garden

 

Temperatures peaked on Friday just as the Waterford Chamber Music Festival opened the weekend with a musical Promenade in Mt. Congreve Gardens. The model of a roster of performers in an historic house has proved a winning formula over three decades in Bantry at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival.  Now in its third year, directors Siobhán Doyle  and Billy  O’Brien delivered an enjoyable three day festival with an impressive line-up of young professional artists at one of Waterford’s major tourist attractions. There were three main concerts, a young artists platform and a morning song recital.

The opening event was a novel approach to capitalize on the natural beauty of the location.  Solo performers were set up at scenic points around the garden. Of the five pieces, flautist  Silvija Ščerbavičiūtė in her rendition of Debussy’s Syrinx framed by the temple best caught the mood of the sultry afternoon.  Pieces by Ysaye and Sarriaho, were vehicles for impressive virtuosity but were somewhat heavy going. Each piece was paired with poetry read by various members of the team. There was a new commission Goat Song by Sean O’Dálaigh with Hannah Miller on French Horn striking a dramatic pose under a magnificent oak tree. Full marks for the provision of the printed texts to mull over later.

It was good to see the musical activity extended to the outdoors and the inclusion of a spoken word element added a pleasant new dimension. There is plenty of scope for more alfresco events in the future. A matinee in the walled garden might work well. *

 

Siobhán Doyle

Later in the evening, the Ambrose room was packed for the first evening concert. While the room was not as salubrious as the Chinese Room used in previous years, the acoustic was good and there was a good shuffle of styles and performers over the course of the evening.  A trio led by festival co director Siobhán Doyle opened with an arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. They were followed by a duo with director Billy O’Brien and Mairead Hickey with two movements from a Mozart sonata, the only one of three dozen sonatas in a minor key. Pianist Maxine Alberti stepped in to play in a trio by Rachmaninoff.

Siobhán Doyle

Refreshed after interval drinks in the courtyard, we returned to hear a charming romance by pioneering American composer Amy Beach. The evening closed out with a splendid performance of Schumann’s piano quintet with all players playing vigour and élan.

There was much to enjoy in the first day of events and it is wonderful to hear chamber music performed in the style of room that the genre was originally written for. Music lovers in the South East have reason to be cheerful to get their summer fix on their doorstep. Bravo tutti!

Mairead Hickey Billy O'Brien 

*With the event wrapping up around 4pm, I would have liked less of a gap between the afternoon and evening start at 7.30pm.

Photos take from Waterford Chamber Music Facebook page 

www.waterfordchambermusic.com 

Tús Maith for Ortús

I caught the final recital of a weekend festival dedicated to chamber music by a young ensemble, some of whom are still in their teens. My review appeared in Wednesday's Irish Examiner.

The  finale was as Francis Humphreys comprehensive programme note eloquently put it ‘a triumphant blaze of sound’

Ortús have made a tús maith. With the support of mentor Adrian Petcu and the imprimatur of board members at West Cork Music Festival and pianist Barry Douglas, the future looks bright, a future these young players have shown  willingness and flair in shaping for themselves. We wish them well.

Chamber Music at Termonfeckin:

I spent the weekend at An Grianánm, the ICA HQ  in Termonfeckin where the Dublin Chamber Music Group were holding one of their twice yearly chamber music courses. It is always reassuring to return after a gap of many years to find a place and event unchanged and just as good as you remember it. Here is an extract from  Kevin Myers' Irishman's diary  on  the event  in 1998. 

'Twice a year, the DCMG and friends go on sabbatical weekends to An Grianan in Termonfeckin, and the venue alone would justify the journey. Termonfeckin is one of the most beautiful little villages in all of Leinster, and it is one of the oldest too - it has a richly decorated high cross from the ninth century and it was the home of the great James Ussher, the prelate of Meath and later Armagh, whose modest little library once included the Book of Kells and who was once world-famous for his calculations that that the world began at 4004 BC (though even he never had the temerity to declare the date on which God invented chamber music).

Ham salad

The DCMG weekend breaks consist of musical sessions over the two days under the watchful eyes and attentive ears of tutors Constantin Zanidache, Helmut Seeber and Adele O'Dwyer, concluding with a quite lovely afternoon concert in which everyone who wants pitches in. It is very informal, but still serious: it is music played as music should be, out of love. That is followed by an old-fashioned and now sadly unfashionable Sunday evening meal from one's childhood: ham salad, with thinly sliced buttered bread, fruitcake and scalding tea out of great big pots. The tea alone is enough to make you take up the viola and conquer the Everest that is Gluck, or at least, bring back Dev - the kind of tea once served to visitors by convents; it is shiveringly delicious.   Kevin Myers : An Irishman's Diary 1998

Hear hear to all that. The  tutors on this occasion were the complete ConTempo string quartet who were between OTC Rigoletto engagements. On Saturday night, there was an open rehearsal and we heard a performance of Haydn String Quartet, Opus 76, no 2  and Beethoven.   My group for our Sunday afternoon concert performance of Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio consisted of Karen Ni Bhroin and Ronán Conroy. You can hear my interview with Karen here. We were tutored by Andrea Balencu,. You can hear Ronán read his poem, A Muse is a Terrible Thing   inspired  by Andrea's wondertfully animated coaching  here. 

listen to ‘Karen Ni Bhroin’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Ronan Conroy A Muse is a terrible thing’ on audioBoom

A performance of the work here with Maxim Rysanal viola Martin Frost Clarinet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_cfok4QxdU

The next weekend is the October Bank Holiday. All musicians are welcome. As My Myers said 'they are enormously enjoyable, civilised and enjoyable. 

 Cost of participation, accommodation and meals is €250: enquiries to Brian McBryan at 01-288 3627.

 http://www.termonfechinmusic.org/

Music for a While: Scholl and Allhoff at Schloss Elmau

Chamber Music Festivals: Kammermusicwoche Schloss Elmau

Schloss Elmau

Klais Bahnhof

                                                                         Leaving Garmisch Partenkirchen , a short train journey through the Wettersteiner Mountains  brings you to  Klais,  Bavaria's  highest station. From here it is a five minute taxi ride to Schloss Elmau. I made the excursion from my base at Garmisch last week to hear an extraordinary artist. Here is my festival report of an evening at Kammermusikwoche.61

Schloss Elmau is an Alpine resort hidden away in rural Bavaria, 60 miles south of Munich. In the uber-swish hotel, that will host the next G7 summit, the lighting is subdued, the lounge room musak is of a superior laconic quality and the book shop is full of weighty tomes on science and politics. You wouldn't be surprised to see Frau Merkel in the corner de-stressing after a week of keeping the show on the road at the Reichstag. 

Live music is a major feature and during a week in January, the hotel  assembles an A list roster of star classical performers for a week of  concerts to please and soothe the pains of guests after a heavy day on the slopes or at the eye watering spas. This year, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen appeared here before her sold out recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. I made an excursion to hear the celebrated counter-tenor Andreas Scholl perform not the German Baroque repertoire for which he is best known but a programme of English songs.

Scholl Halperin at Schloss Elmau

Konzertsaal Schloss Elmau

The lachrymose programme opened and closed in the Renaissance. The pathos of a pair of tear stained lute songs by John Dowland mingled with mirth of a Jacobean ditty by Thomas Campion. After the cleansing sorbet of a Bach Prelude sensitively played by pianist Tamar Halperin, came the serenity of Purcell’s, Music for a While and Evening Hymn. Benjamin Britten’s arrangements of familiar folksongs included WB Yeats’ The Salley Gardens. The gentle songs were wrapped around poignant sentiments of regret and despair in settings by Haydn of poems by Anne Hunter from his London sojourn. Scholl throughout had a genial stage manner speaking to the audience in German. For an encore he gave us another bite of Britten in the simple ‘I Will Give My Love an Apple’ . A photograph in the hall reminded us that Benjamin Britten and counter tenor Peter Pears performed here in 1959.

The countertenor voice is a musical high wire act, an enthralling blend of strength and fragility.  The impossibly beautiful tones of Herr Scholl, seemed to drop effortlessly down from another world entirely to a rapt audience in the Konzertsaal at Schloss Elmau and music  did indeed  ‘for a while, all our cares beguile’.   Wunderbar!

****

(Most of the programme can be heard on the Grammy nominated Purcell album ‘O Solitude’ 2010 and English Folk Songs and Lute Songs (1996)

No Irish dates listed but several London dates in 2015).

listen to ‘elmau piano 2’ on audioBoom

T

Scholl wasn't the only class act at the schloss that evening. In the Al Camino lounge  jazz pianist, Tim Allhoff  was quietly impressive  as he worked through a set of complex improvisations  on standards (including a  version of the Danny Boy) accompanied by an occasional cocktail shaker for percussion. 

Set List  Scholl

Dowland Flow My Tears
                I Saw My Lady Weep
Campion I Care not for these ladies

Bach Prelude in C
Purcell    Music for a while
               Evening Hymn
Britten Folksong arr. The Ash Grove
Haydn  Despair/ Recollection/ The Wanderer

Haydn Piano Solo Minuet and Finale Piano Sonata in A 
Britten Salley Gardens/ Greensleeves
Robert Johnson Have you seen the bright lilies grow
Encore I will give my love an apple 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yIsScgpNoA

Vogler Quartet with Blumina in Cork

German Boy Band: The Vogler Quartet

   Dvorak : Piano Quintet in A Major Op.81 

I was just in time to catch the last item of the Vogler Quartet's concert at the Curtis Auditorium in Cork on Thursday,  a Dvorak piano quintet  with pianist Elisaveta Blumina. 
But this  work made for one of those memorable evenings that made you feel glad to be there to hear it. and believe   for these moments at least, that  the very best thing in the musical world is a string quartet. Better still, one augmented by a piano. 
So what was the wow factor in this performance  for it most certainly was a wow?  That these fellas can play is a given at this level. Rather it was the blend of sound that seemed as near perfect as I have heard and  the youthful enthusiasm  and apparent delight  they took in their task as they exchanged smiles at sunny moments in the work, The German ensemble have a slightly tousled boyish air about them and hard to believe that they are playing together for nearly three decades.  The group anchor an annual music festival in Sligo on May Bank Holiday and have had some interesting collaborations and I include a video on one below.
The hall was packed to near capacity with a pleasant mix of age groups. There were many musicians in the audience with  members of the teaching staff and their students well represented  at the evening hosted by the Cork Orchestral Society.  

In one of those strange coincidences, the name Vogler cropped in conversation later in the Hi B Bar where Francis from Munich was tickling the ivories, Vogler's Jazz Club being a great jazz spot in Bavarian capital. He  plays from Wednesday to Saturday evenings in the Hi B but more on Francis in a  future post.