Following Music for Galway’s survey of the works of Gabriel Fauré in January 2024, another French composer comes under the spotlight at the 22nd Midwinter Festival from 17 th to 19th January 2025, this time the exquisitely inventive Maurice Ravel. Born 150 years ago to a Swiss engineer father and a Basque mother, Ravel was internationally regarded as France’s greatest living composer in the 1920s and 1930s.
His best-known work remains the hypnotic “Boléro” and the festival concludes with a new imagining of the work for piano duet and dance artist, in partnership with Galway Dance.
Artistic Director of Music for Galway, pianist Finghin Collins said that once again Music for Galway presents a deep immersion into the world of a significant composer from the recent past.
This is a unique opportunity to delve into the life and work of one of the most exquisite and individual artists of the last century. This bespoke festival will not happen anywhere else, so it is well worth a trip to Galway for the weekend! I’m looking forward to it enormously and grateful that we can bring the Town Hall Theatre to life to the many exotic sounds dreamt up by the genius who was Maurice Ravel”.
Ravel was a painstakingly slow worker and therefore not as prolific as many of his contemporaries. However, what he did compose are intensely masterful compositions which conjure up exotic landscapes, haunting sound-worlds and complex harmonies. He also knew how to challenge the performer: many of his instrumental works are cruelly difficult and demand the highest level of artistry from the musicians. This is true of the solo piano works as well as the chamber works, most notably the sumptuous Piano Trio, immortalised in the 1992 film “Un Coeur en Hiver”.
To perform a diverse range of these works we are delighted to welcome the Swiss pianist François-Xavier Poizat to Galway. Poizat is currently engaged in a project to record all of Ravel’s works. He is deeply immersed in his musical language and well capable of meeting the many challenges of the writing. His offering in Galway will include the infamous cycle “Gaspard de la Nuit” inspired by the poetry of Aloysius Bertrand. Joining him for the piano trio are Irish violinist Gwendolyn Masin and German cellist Benedict Kloeckner, who will also join forces for Ravel’s sonata for violin and cello.
Ravel also wrote beautiful settings of the poetry of his time and Irish mezzo-soprano Gemma Ní Bhriain will perform selected songs in each of the concerts, accompanied at the piano by Music for Galway’s Artistic Director Finghin Collins. This will include Ravel’s “Chansons Madécasses” or “Magadascan Songs”, settings of three African texts for voice, flute, cello and piano which have been described as both “exotically erotic” and “strongly anti-colonial”. The festival comes to a dramatic conclusion with a performance by the two festival pianists of Ravel’s “Boléro”, accompanying a new choreography conceived by dance artist Aneta Dortóva. This world premiere choreography is made possible by a collaboration between Music for Galway and Galway Dance.
CEO of Music for Galway Anna Lardi said they are very grateful to everyone who has made the upcoming Midwinter Festival possible. “The University of Galway has supported Music for Galway for many decades and we are delighted to have their support again this January. Furthermore we are very grateful to the Embassy of Switzerland in Dublin whose sponsorship helps us to present the outstandingly talented Swiss pianist François-Xavier Poizat.
“As a Swiss citizen myself, I am convinced that Maurice Ravel would have got nowhere without the engineer’s brain he inherited from his Swiss father. His writing has total dedication to detail, razor-sharp concision and gives the impression of total conviction. We look forward to seeing you all in January in Galway,” she added.
Standard ticket prices for the concerts are €25; Concession €22.50; Social Inclusion €12.50; MfG Friends €21 and can be booked from www.musicforgalway.ie or Town Hall Theatre 091 569777. Concession rate applies to people aged over 66 and social inclusion tickets are available to children, students (full time ), people in receipt of disability and back-to-work allowance, carers’ allowance, as well as to people seeking refuge and refugees. There is a festival ticket available at €70 / concession €63.
The Midwinter Festival is presented in association with the University of Galway and with the support of Galway City Council and the Embassy of Switzerland in Ireland. Music for Galway gratefully acknowledges funding from the Arts Council.
Accommodation packages are available, see www.musicforgalway.ie for all booking details.
