Cathy's Reviews

The Great Irish Poets' Songbook at Waterford Medieval Museum

2025-02-23T14:55:00.262+00:00

Dean Power James Hurley at Garden Room Medieval Museum

The Spring season of Waterford Music recitals kicked off with an unusual collaboration of two impressive artists, neither heard in the city before. Under the title 'The Great Irish Poets' Songbook', Clare tenor Dean Power and Canadian pianist, James Hurley presented a programme of classic Irish poems set to original music by Hurley with a sprinkling of familiar settings. Hurley's original music was captivating, skillfully crafted with complex harmonies and played with élan. Power gave an ardent performance, singing the texts from memory, no mean feat for a substantial programme of new material. It was refreshing to hear a fresh take on familiar texts and marvelous to hear a tenor voice of this quality in Waterford. A minor quibble,-I would have liked to have heard the first half Joyce songs sung as a set without spoken asides and applause breaking the mood.

Opening with a setting of WB Yeats' Easter 1916, the songs leaned towards the lyrical and elegiac with plenty of room for the intricacies in the piano counterpart to come through. The haunting mood was leavened with jaunty renditions of traditional numbers, Eileen Og and Star of the County Down. The programme finished with a rumbustious Newfoundland folk song, Sarah. We heard seven songs from Joyce's Chamber Music of which my favourite was Golden Hair. There was a little hesitation about the choice of encore but they finished with a lovely treatment of another Joyce text, Gentle Lady Do Not Sing which best fitted the prevailing mood of the evening.

With the Mary Strangman Room closed for renovations, the recital took place in the Garden Room of the Medieval Museum. I liked the subdued lighting, the acoustic was good and suited the parlour-room style presentation of the recital.

Friends since Dean Power's decade at the Bavarian State Opera, they chatted to the audience and each other about the collaboration. While the duo have performed in Ireland and in Hurley's native Newfoundland, the project is still in development. Waterford has a strong connection with Newfoundland going back to the 18th century. The city is twinned with the capital St Johns, so it seems apt that we should at last welcome a Newfoundland native to join the roll call of performers here. (More about the Waterford Newfound connections here via WIYP.) I think the project has great potential for further performances particularly with Ireland and Canada's strong cross cultural links and would have particular appeal to the Irish diaspora. It merits a mainstream recording. See what do you think? Have a listen to some of the songs on the Soundcloud links below.

Fanny Parnell and James Joyce among the poets featured.

Bravo gentlemen! Well done to the

voluntary Waterford. Music committee who work hard to bring great musical events to our city. Check out their forthcoming recitals here https://www.waterford-music.org/

Have a listen to the duo's recordings on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.
com/james-hurley-274071616/sets/great-irish-poets-songbook.

I also enjoyed listening to Hurleys's solo improvisatory compositions on Spotify . Check out his album Nightscapes in the link . Perfect for late night listening. James Hurley Nightscapes

https://youtu.be/qfsitg31bHQ?feature=shared The Salley Gardens Youtube Power / Hurley

Programme Waterford The Great Irish Poet's Songbook.

Easter 1916 WB Yeats

Five Songs selected from James Joyce's Chamber Music: Strings in the Earth, Deeper Blue, Watcher of the Skies, Star, Golden Hair

The Last Rose of Summer,

Star of County Down trad arr Hurley

Requiescat Oscar Wilde

Eileen Og

Hold the Harvest and After Death Fanny Parnell

cool is the Valley, Dark Wood, , Noise of Water

Salley Gardens trad

Lake Isle of Inisfree WB Yeats

What Council, Arise , My Dove from Joyce's Chamber Music

Sarah Newfoundland Song

Encore Gentle Lady Do Not Sing

Gentle Lady Do Not Sing

Gentle lady, do not sing
Sad songs about the end of love;
Lay aside sadness and sing
How love that passes is enough.

Sing about the long deep sleep
Of lovers that are dead, and how
In the grave all love shall sleep:
Love is aweary now.

Celebrating Canadian Connections on the Keys at New Ross

2023-08-11T10:01:00.013+01:00

A grand piano on a Tall Ship! I was in the riverside town New Ross in Co Wexford for the launch of the 2023 New Ross Piano Festival. The hook for this year's programme is the local connection to Canada and there is a special emphasis on the work of Rachmaninov on a significant anniversary.

The special guest was the Irish ambassador to Canada, Eamonn McKee. The ambassador spoke eloquently on the story of the Irish in Canada. McKee made the point that while the story of the Irish in America is well documented, the story of the Irish in Canada is relatively untouched. He whetted our appetites to know more about figures like Tadhg O Brennan, the first known Irishman in Canada, John Palliser a Dubliner who led a scientific exploration of the prairies and the waves of Irish influencers that shaped Canada's history. You can read more about this fascinating subject in this piece by McKee Fifty Irish Lives in Canada: It's Complicated and That's Great.

Ambassador to Canada Eamonn McKee

Having exhausted the Ros Tapestry idea with 15 pieces commissioned, one for each panel, artistic director Finghin Collins has turned to another notable feature of New Ross, the Dunbrody Famine Ship. The original 19 century ship, he explained was commissioned by the Graves family and built in Canada and sailed between New Ross and St Laurence until it ran aground in 1873. This year, two new pieces inspired by the original Dunbrody and its replica, will be heard at the Friday night concert; one by Irish composer , Marian Ingoldsby and one by Canadian composer, Francois Vallieres.

There is much to tempt music lovers to the New Ross Piano Festival. Jazz fans are catered for with various events on Thursday. An event with words and music drawn from the music and writing of Rachmaninov is a novel feature on this year's programme. To round off the launch Collins sat at the piano and played a Chopin Ballade with his usual panache. Great music, eloquent words, wine and food and the rain held off. Hats off to the hard working committee who amazingly have kept this super festival going in for 17 years.

www.newrosspianofestival.com

Previous blog posts on NRPF

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/2015/09/10-years-of-piano-magic-in-

new-ross.html

https://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/2017/09/hungarian-feast-on-famine-ship-new-ross.html

https://cathydesmond.blogspot.com/2018/10/round-up.html 13 Years of NRPF

#newross, newrosspianofestival, #marianingoldsby, FinghinCollins, Canada,

Director Finghin Collins

60th Birthday Recital:Melodies of the Silver Screen

2022-09-14T13:57:00.009+01:00

What a privilege to arrive at the start another decade. My 7th! A nudge to get on and do the things that one most enjoys. To mark my 60th birthday, I gave a recital of my favourite music from the cinema. A week after the day, I presented the programme at the Upstairs Gallery at the Coastguard Cultural Centre in Tramore. I was joined by pianist and composer Marian Ingoldsby. The evening sun was still bright and the white horses of the sea were visible through the windows of the scenic Coastguard Station on the Doneraile in the seaside town.

In December 2021, I commissioned a new violin from luthier Mark Keenan. I made the trip down to Mark's workshop in Belmont, Co Offaly to collect the instrument in August. It is a copy of a Golden period Stradivarius and I look forward to playing it in the years ahead. To go with a new instrument I commissioned a new piece for violin and piano by Marian Ingoldsby and gave the premiere performance at the event. A world premiere no less! Notions!

I am happy to report that the venue was full and a retiring collection raised €500 for Meals on Wheels. Thank you all!

Set List below

Melodies of the Silver Screen

Coastguard, Tramore 4^th September 2022

Cathy Desmond -Violin & Marian Ingoldsby -Piano

Guest Tenor John Drohan

Programme

· Humoresque; Dvorak 1947 Humoresque

· Romanze; Shostakovich 1955 The GADFLY

· Salut d’Amour; Elgar 1962 Elgar (dir Ken Russell)

· Windmills of Your Mind; Legrand 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair -

· Loss of Love ; Henry Mancini 1970 Sunflower

· Speak Softly Love; Nino Rota 1972 The Godfather

· Lara’s Theme; Maurice Jarre 1965 Dr Zhivago

· Theme Schindler’s List; John Williams 1993 Schindler’s List

· Por Una Cabeza; Carlos Gardel 2002 Scent of a Woman

· Theme; Nigel Hess 2004 Ladies in Lavender

· New Commission; Ingoldsby: 2022 Doneraile Saunter (working title)

· The Marino Waltz; J Sheahan 1987 The Peat Briquette Ads TV

T Poem The Fiddlemaker's Workshop by J Sheahan read by Daniel Foley for Mark Keenan

· Czardas; Monti 1984 Unfaithfully Yours

· Ashokan Farewell; Jay Ungar 1991 Ken Burns PBS The Civil War

Silver Screen Selection ViolinCat: Youtube Playlist: www.shorturl.at/ejL19

Clips from the films that inspired tonight’s programme.