SOMETIMES A chance event can dictate the entire course of a life, one random instance can establish a pathway and a pattern to follow.
It seems to be so with the life of the distinguished Irish classical musician, John Finucane, whose journey to the clarinet is the result of an enthusiastic priest who was meant to be teaching his pupils French.
Since 1995, John has been principal clarinet with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, and has enjoyed an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. Described by Gramophone as “an outstanding virtuoso”, he has also worked with the Ulysses Ensemble, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, and Opera North. He is also a highly regarded conductor, regularly conducting the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra, and he teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
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Photo:- Frances Marshall
Next weekend, John will be in Galway, displaying his considerable skills on the clarinet when he performs at Music for Galway’s midwinter festival, entitled Stanford. Yet how did that unorthodox French class lead to this musical career?
A fortuitous French class
John’s journey into music was not inevitable, as he did not come from a musical family. “It’s odd,” says John, during our Monday afternoon interview. “My father and his brothers emigrated to London in the 1950s. They were from farming stock in Limerick, and there was no music on their side, and yet, my uncle, Tom Finucane, went on to become one of the best known lutenists in the business. It’s funny how there ended up being two professional musicians in the family.
“My mother was from Liverpool. She played piano, as did all her family, they had some basic lessons. It was the pub style piano and jazz songs. She was my first teacher, but I didn’t discover classical music until many years later.”
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Photo:- Frances Marshall
John’s introduction to formal lessons came when he attended Willow Park in Dublin, the junior school of Blackrock College, and had piano lessons with a woman called Winnifred Rankin. “It was back in the days of the rap on the knuckles with a ruler,” he recalls, “but I still enjoyed it.”
Then a priest, Fr Jarlath Dowling, returned to Ireland from the missions in Mauritius. John describes him as a man defined by enthusiasm, and he was keen to make music a big part of a school where rugby was dominant.
“He started a brass quartet. The next year he was teaching French, and held up before the class a clarinet,” says John. “He asked, ‘Does anybody know what this is? Does anybody want to try and play it?’ I was the only one who put my hand up, and I got to bring it home and check it out.
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Photo:- Frances Marshall
“I was very sickly as a child, I was very bronchial, I often missed months of school, so I wondered if I would be able to play the clarinet. My parents asked my doctor about it and he said I should continue playing as it just might cure me, and it did! As I played I felt myself clearing up. Even today, if I don’t practice regularly, I can feel the wheeze coming back.”
Clarinet was good for John’s health, and he proved to have a natural aptitude for the instrument. “I loved it,” he says. “One of the main things my teachers taught me was enthusiasm. I never met anyone as enthusiastic as Fr Dowling, and that kept me going with it. When a teacher creates enthusiasm, that rubs off on the performer. Within a few months of starting clarinet, I was playing Mozart, in front of the school, with Fr Dowling on the piano.”
An Irish composer
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Photo:- Frances Marshall
When John is in Galway next weekend for MfG’s midwinter festival, he will be playing music by Charles Villiers Stanford, the Irish composer who wrote many fine pieces for clarinet, a number of which John has recorded on albums such as Irish Holidays and Clarinet Variations.
One of the works he will be performing will be Stanford’s Clarinet Sonata Op 129. How does he rate Stanford in terms of his place in Classical music?
“In the same way as Samuel Colderidge Taylor, in that both are underrated,” he says. “That’s not to say they are top ranking composers, like Beethoven and the rest, yet they have an identifiable style. Stanford wrote good music, with very great moments.”
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From a portrait of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.
Stanford lived and worked for most of his life in Britain, and it has resulted in his being Irish to be overlooked or ignored. Yet any examination of Stanford’s music reveals two things - his indebtedness to Brahms and a deeply felt sense of being Irish.
“Stanford writes with an Irish accent,” says John. “The Clarinet Sonata Op 129, the second movement is entitled ‘Caoine’, the Irish word for cry. Musically it is a little bit like his nostalgic songs for Ireland. The music is quite Irish in a nice way, not in a Hollywood way.
“The other movements are more classical - Brahms was his hero - and in other pieces there are lush Brahms twists, such as in the violin solo in the Nonet, and the last movement recalls Brahms’ 4th symphony. And I’m glad I’m playing these pieces. They should be heard.”
Brahms and Stanford
Stanford composed many pieces for clarinet. In this he was also following the lead set by Brahms. What attracts John to these pieces by Stanford and what do they offer the clarinetist?
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Charles Villers Stanford.
“I think it’s Stanford’s ability to be melodic, there are these lovely melodic lines throughout his pieces for clarinet,” he says. “Brahms wrote a lot of music towards the end of his life for the clarinet. He was inspired by the tone of the clarinet player, Richard Mühlfeld.
“Among the pieces Brahms wrote were the Clarinet Trio, the Clarinet Quintet, and the two Clarinet Sonatas - four of the major works in the clarinet repertoire. Stanford dedicated a piece to Mühlfeld in the hope he would play it. He didn’t, so Stanford scratched the dedication and dedicated it to the British clarinetist, Frederick Thurston instead, and he did play it.”
Shows will be in line with Government Covid-19 guidelines and take place in the Town Hall Theatre on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 at 6pm, and Sunday 23 at 11am and 3pm. The St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church concert is on January 22 at 2pm.
Tickets are available via www.musicforgalway.ie and the Town Hall Theatre (www.tht.ie or 091 569777 ).
