SUAVE IS a term normally reserved for the Pierse Brosnans and Bryan Ferrys of this world, but the classical musician, clarinettist Paul Roe, has this quality too.
Described by The Irish Times as “suave and wistful”, Paul Roe will be performing in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, alongside ConTempo for Music for Galway’s Klezmer and Beyond - The Soul of the Clarinet concert on Thursday May 13 at 8pm.
The evening opens with Soundshapes II, a work for clarinet and string quartet by Galwegian Jane O’Leary. Written in several short movements, the work explores the wide variety of timbres possible on the instruments.
Nick Roth’s ‘Quintet for Klezmer Clarinet and String Quartet’ was written especially for these musicians and is to be premiered on the night. The quartet then will take centre stage with Music In Square by Romanian/Canadian composer Maya Badian, before moving on to the core piece of the night, a quintet for clarinet/bass clarinet and string quartet by Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov, entitled The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.
The piece was inspired by the composer’s time spent in Israel and the mystic Isaac the Blind who believed that all happens as the result of combinations of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Boston Phoenix praised Golijov’s work as “an unusually passionate synthesis of traditional Jewish folk and religious musics well seasoned with Latin and classical accents”.
Tickets are €20/16/6 from Music for Galway (091 - 705962 ), Opus II, The Cornstore, or online from the Town Hall Theatre on www.tht.ie The next concert will be Mark Feldman (violin ) and Sylvie Courvoisier (piano ) on Friday May 21 in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church.
