Irish Times critics review Kliegel, RTÉ NSO/Markson and Opera Galaat the NCH in Dublin and Ulster Orchestra - Thierry Fischer at the Ulster Hall in Belfast.
Kliegel, RTÉ
NSO/Markson
NCH, Dublin
Stravinsky - Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum
Schnittke - Cello Concerto No 1
Ravel - Bolero
Friday's concert was subtitled A Stroke of Genius and presented works composed following stroke or neurological disease.
The Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum was one of many works Stravinsky wrote after suffering two strokes in 1956. The seven-minute piece comprises orchestrations of madrigals by Gesualdo, affectingly combining a 400-year-old chromaticism well ahead of its time with a fresh and empathetic voice from the 20th century. It is late, rare Stravinsky, rather sobre compared to his earlier interactions with the past, and a treat to hear as part of the RTÉ NSO's year-long survey of the composer.
Further proof that there is life after stroke is dramatically contained in the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Alfred Schnittke, who suffered a stroke in 1985 while still working on the piece. Although pronounced brain-dead three times during a coma which lasted 20 days, he recovered to complete the work.
The concerto's opening movement is a sombre dialogue between soloist and orchestra, their brooding exchanges interrupted by flashes of angry tension and the occasional moment of warmth.
This kaleidoscope of emotions was presented with a compellingly human voice by soloist Maria Kliegel.
The work's dramatic high-point arrives during the bustle of the Shostakovich-tinged third movement which is suddenly cut, as though - in the words of conductor Gerhard Markson - by guillotine.
The concluding movement then contains the music, which Schnittke said came to him during his recovery.
And, just like a recovery, the movement climbs from darkness into triumph, an invigorating ascent achieved by Kliegel, the orchestra and Markson.
Bolero, composed by Ravel after he was diagnosed with a form of dementia, can be seen as a celebration not only of musical colour but also of the triumph of creativity over disease. Both celebrations were served well by Friday's performance.
Michael Dungan
Opera Gala
National Concert Hall
Opera galas can be something of a lottery. You win some, you lose some. This one at the National Concert Hall on Saturday was mostly a winners' night.
The operas of Giuseppe Verdi featured strongly, with five of then visited by bass Julian Konstantinov. The sonorous Bulgarian wasn't always pitch-perfect, but his mighty presence and vocal gravitas enhanced his portrayals of the varying plights of fraught elderly gentlemen from Ernani, Macbeth, Attila, Force of Destiny and Sicilian Vespers.
He also exploited his impressive range in Basilio's slander aria from The Barber of Seville.
Mariana Colpos had a mixed evening. The Romanian soprano began with a supple but trill-less jewel song from Faust, followed with an elegant account of Doretta's dream from Puccini's La rondine, and then found herself overparted as Leonora in the monastery duet from Force of Destiny.
After that it was all uphill, with a broadly-phrased "Vissi d'arte", a vivacious wedding bolero from Sicilian Vespers and an assured Romanian folk song encore.
Best of all was her moving contribution to the tomb scene from Aida , all 11 minutes of it, in which she was partnered by the fresh-voiced Nicola Rossi Giordano.
The Italian tenor's singing was very exciting throughout.
He flaunted his lyric cum spinto voice in open-throated accounts of arias from Carmen, Andrea Chénier, and Cavalleria rusticana without concerning himself too much with irksome details like composers' dynamic markings. But his vocal discipline in that Aida duet was exemplary.
Philip Thomas presided authoritatively at the piano, and the evening was filled out by John Meehan's DIT Wind Ensemble, whose four items suffered from an imbalance that had the woodwind melodies too often swamped by the brass.
John Allen
Ulster Orchestra - Thierry Fischer
Ulster Hall, Belfast
Wagner - Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod
Sibelius - Violin Concerto
Harty - The Children of Lir
In the early years of the 20th century Wagner's music featured more prominently in Belfast's musical life than it does now. His operas were performed on the stage by visiting companies and on the concert platform by the Philharmonic Society.
In recent years he has been heard here much less often, and this performance of the Tristan Prelude reminded us of what we have been missing. Fischer shaped the music firmly, but it was the golden sound of the orchestra, the warm blending of the wind and horns, which was so appealing.
In the Liebestod Franzita Whelan had to fight against the fact that the musical interest lies mostly with the orchestra. It takes a special voice to soar over the main climax, even when the balance is managed carefully, as it was here. She was more at home in the wordless vocalise of Harty's The Children of Lir. The opening pages here were brassy and obvious for music marked "con dignità", but in the quieter episodes the music regained a certain Celtic Twilight charm.
In the Sibelius Fischer and the Ulster Orchestra contributed an exemplary accompaniment. Ilya Gringolts matched tone quality to musical content, providing a blanched, wan sound for the opening, a firm, grainy timbre for the succeeding rapid passages, with no sign of the nervous scratchiness one has heard in some performances, and a rich, warm tone for the long melodic lines of the slow movement.
Dermot Gault
