THIS YEAR marks the bicentenary of the death of one master and the birth of another – Haydn, one of the most important composers of the classical period and Mendelssohn, an early Romantic.
To mark the occasion, Music For Galway will host the Haydn Mendelssohn Bicentenary Celebration in the Aula Maxima, NUI Galway, on Thursday March 12 at 8pm with Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten and Irish pianist Finghin Collins.
On the night, they will perform Haydn’s Canzonettas, Variations in F minor Hob XVII:6, and Arianna a Naxos. They will also perform Mendelssohn’s ‘Three Songs without Words’ and ‘Lieder: Die Liebe schreibt, Hexenlied, Romanze, Frühlingslied’.
‘Lieder: Schwanenlied, Warum sind die Rosen so blass, Verlust, Abendstern’ by Fanny Mendelssohn, will also be performed.
In 2001 Lenneke Ruiten won first prize at the Erna Spoorenberg Vocalists Presentation, while in 2002 she was awarded the first prize, the press prize, the audience prize, the prize for the best Dutch participant, and the youth jury prize at the International Voice Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch.
Since then, a busy career has taken her to the most prestigious halls around Europe, performing lieder as well as orchestral lieder and operas.
One of Ireland's most successful musicians, Finghin Collins studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O’Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet. Since then he has developed a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe, the United States, and the Far East.
The performance will be followed by a reception courtesy of the Austrian Embassy. Tickets are €20/16/6 from Music for Galway on 091 - 705962 or Opus II, St Augustine Street. The next concert is the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Leisureland on March 24.
