THE MUSIC of Russian romantic composers will feature in Music for Galway’s annual January Festival which gets under way on Friday January 23.
Guaranteed to warm your hearts for a whole weekend in the midst of winter, the festival is becoming ever more popular as a welcome remedy against the darkness and the cold.
The romance of the Russians
Based in the Town Hall Theatre, this year’s programme focusing on Russian romantics features much-loved works by the likes of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Mussorgsky, performed by some of Ireland’s foremost musicians and singers.
Speaking ahead of the festival, on a bitingly cold Monday evening - which itself seemed to evoke Russian winter - Music For Galway’s Jane O’Leary described it thus:
“We’ve put together a mix of well known masterpieces from the romantic repertoire along with works that are perhaps not as recognised but we feel deserve to be. The festival also sees a very good group of artists coming together to perform the pieces. The ConTempo Quartet are at the heart of it all and they are joined by an array of visiting performers from both Ireland and England.”
The influence of romanticism in music was felt throughout Europe in the 19th century; but was its manifestation in Russia in any way distinctive?
“I think the Russians wear their hearts on their sleeves,” O’Leary observes. “Their music seems deeply felt and is very expressive. Our festival programme has the ‘string sound’ at the heart of it and so we have works that are very emotive and rich.”
All three main concerts feature chamber music alongside vocal works. ConTempo Quartet will perform quartets by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Borodin. On Sunday afternoon, January 25, one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works for strings, Souvenir de Florence, in its original version for string sextet, will be performed by ConTempo together with the violist and cellist of the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet Simon Aspell and Christopher Marwood. Another highlight of the weekend sees piano and strings come together for a rare performance of the piano quintet by Taneyev, on Saturday January 24.
“The performers are all thrilled to be doing the Tanayev piece,” O’Leary reveals. “It isn’t done that often so it gives them a rare opportunity to engage with it. His music is not unlike Brahms.
“Another composer we’re featuring who’s sometimes overlooked a little is Borodin. He was a very tuneful composer but he’s sometimes dismissed as being somewhat light. However he wrote a great deal and we’ve selected some of the real gems that he composed for the programme.”
No Russian festival would be complete without including some of the great song repertoire, and baritone Conor Biggs accompanied by Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin will perform a selection by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky, as well as Borodin.
The piano will also feature as a solo instrument with the outstanding British pianist Ian Fountain, who will perform Mussorgsky’s well-known Pictures At An Exhibition – on Saturday January 24 - and less well known piano works by Medtner and Tchaikovsky.
While the festival has only been going a few years, it has already proved a big hit with Galway audiences, and has also commenced to attract patrons from further afield.
“We started in the Taibhdhearc about five years ago,” O’Leary recalls, “and then we moved to the Town Hall to meet the greater demand for tickets, and so on. I think the festival is at a good time of year, people are past the Christmas and are ready to start going out to events again. It’s a lovely weekend and we’ve got a very enthusiastic audience in Galway for it. We would hope over the coming years for it to become more established on a national level.”
Music For Galway 2009
Russian romantics also serves as a spectacular curtain raiser for Music For Galway’s spring programme. Highlights include a mini-residency by the internationally lauded Calefax Reed Quintet in February.
The quintet arrange, recompose and interpret music from eight centuries to suit their unique constellation: from early music to classical and jazz to world premieres: in the hands of Calefax it all sounds fresh and new.
While in Galway they will work in schools and with members of the Galway Youth Orchestra before giving their concert performance on February 4 in NUI, Galway’s Aula Maxima.
On February 20, ConTempo Quartet are gathering many of last year’s Schubert festival musicians to celebrate Emily Anderson’s connection with NUIG – having translated all the correspondence of Beethoven and Mozart into English, she is an important figure for music lovers in the English speaking world. As daughter of the then university president in Galway she grew up in the very walls in which a large part of the Music for Galway concerts take place.
In March, two more performers from last year’s Schubert festival return for a concert in honour of Haydn and Mendelssohn’s bicentenaries. The concert features song and piano music by the two composers and will be performed by acclaimed Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten and Irish pianist Finghin Collins.
Haydn is also part of this year’s RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra spring tour – when his ‘Surprise’ Symphony forms part of the programme, along with works by Brahms and Liszt. The concert will take place in Leisureland on March 24.
In April, ConTempo Quartet and RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet join forces to present three fantastic works for string octet in the great setting of the Ballroom suite in the Meyrick Hotel. The programme features works by Bruch, Dall’Ongaro, and Mendelssohn.
The season ends on Thursday April 30 with the closing of Music for Galway’s Venetian Bookends strand; breathtaking Italian pianist Alberto Nosè returns with the Quartetto di Venezia with a programme inspired by all things Italian. The venue for this concert is yet to be confirmed.
Much to look forward to then over the coming months, and it all gets under way with Russian Romantics which runs throughout the weekend of January 23 to 25. Festival tickets cost €55 / €45, while individual tickets cost €20/16.
Full programme details can be viewed at www.musicforgalway.ie and bookings can be made at the Town Hall.
