The Fews Ensemble from County Down will be premiering a number of works with an Ulster theme at the University of Galway’s Emily Anderson Hall this Saturday, October 5.
Three works of Irish classical music - never before performed in the Republic of Ireland - include Hamilton Harty’s unjustly overlooked Piano Quintet in F major, and, with soprano Máire Flavin, new works by contemporary Belfast composers Ian Wilson and Brian Connor.
The Fews Ensemble is the resident ensemble of Newry, Mourne and Down and Newry Chamber Music. Its performance this Sunday at 7.30pm will be its first in the west of Ireland.
Though he enjoyed a largely successful career, particularly as a conductor, the music of Co Down composer Hamilton Harty has been neglected. The Fews Ensemble are seeking to change that through their performance of Harty’s 1904 work, the Piano Quintet in F major, Op 12.
Joanne Quigley McParland, Fews Ensemble Artistic Director, calls it “a fascinating work and full of gorgeous folk-inspired melodies.” The musicologist Professor Jeremy Dibble of Durham University praised the quintet’s performance of Hamilton as “a bold, big-boned, passionate work of symphonic proportions” which “stands happily beside those large-scale Romantic utterances of Schumann, Brahms, Dvorák.”
Another significant premiere will be Ian Wilson’s Passerine Night (2023 ) for soprano and ensemble, inspired by a nightingale’s song, heard by the composer during the first two months of lockdown in 2020.
“I have in mind one specific night: a starlit sky, the absence of human noise, the nightingale singing for hours,” said Wilson. “I went out into the garden and the experience was beautiful, memorable, and moving. I wanted to create an artistic response to that memorable evening as a reminder that even in the midst of something terrible, something beautiful can be found.”
This performance will be conducted by Galway’s Sinead Hayes, the Britten Pears Young Artist for 2024 and conductor of the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s symphony orchestra.
The third premiere will be of Brian Connor’s Three Irish Songs in new arrangements: ‘My Lagan Love’, ‘The Month of January’, and ‘The Star of the County Down’. The concert will also feature a performance of Phantasy Trio, by Fermanagh composer Joan Trimble.
The Fews Ensemble is Joanne Quigley McParland and Tom Jackson (violins ), Rose Redgrave (viola ), Jonathan Aasgaard (cello ), Gareth Hopkins (bass ), Francesco Paolo Scola (clarinet ) and David Quigley (piano ).
Tickets €20/€10 from www.newrychambermusic.org
