The latest reviews from Irish Timeswriters.

Love

Belfast Children's Festival, Old Museum Arts Centre

Gian Berto Vanni's Lovewas first published in 1964, yet today, more than 40 years on, its touching story of the lonely orphan girl, illustrated by dazzling cut-out pages, coloured collages and folded paper images, still has the power to delight. Replay Productions continues its 19-year history of capturing young imaginations with this deceptively simple yet utterly beguiling stage adaptation for very small children.

Director Richard Croxford and writer Sarah Argent have set the story in the bleak confines of an orphanage yard, in which the tiny audience members are invited to take their seats on brightly checked oilcloth mats.

But, as the tale unfolds, with incredible fidelity to the original print version, Siobhán Ferrie's set becomes a magical place. There is more than a touch of Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hillsabout Seán-Paul O'Rawe and Niki Doherty's knowing, conniving overgrown children, while Julie Maxwell is the gauche, lanky little girl, whose big, sad eyes and inner sense of mischief make her the one whom all the children want as their friend.

There are few more delightful places in which to pass an hour than in the bewitching, thought-provoking world of Love.

• Tour continues to Lisburn (June 14th)- Jane Coyle

Festival String Sextet,

Killruddery House, Bray

Strauss - Sextet from Capriccio. Dvorák - Sextet in A Op 48.

Brahms - Sextet in G Op 36.

A distinguished team had been mustered for the opening concert of the 37th festival of Music in Great Irish Houses.

It comprised three members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and three of Ireland's prominent chamber musicians: Hubert Kroisamer and Sarah Sexton (violins), Michael Strasser and John Lynch (violas), and Eckart Schwarz-Schulz and Sarah McMahon (cellos).

Given the occasional and usually ephemeral nature of this kind of ensemble, the magnificent works that have been composed for it depend on the swift establishment of a co-operative musical chemistry. Any differences over tuning, for example, will soon be revealed by the copious octave doublings of Dvorák's tightly packed score.

With Brahms, of course, each of the six instruments plays its own independent and indispensable part. Yet a subtle "we and they" character often evident in his two sextets shows that he calculated them for a permanent quartet plus two guests. The music demands more synergy, than this ad-hoc group could supply.

It was an unfortunate evening for Kroisamer in particular, who, though he might have functioned as the ensemble's primus inter pares, dispensed some off-centre intonation, and jumped the gun in Brahms's fugal finale.

In general, however, the dithering tempos and obscured melodies created a sense of undirectedness which the players overcame only within the narrower limits of the variation movements. - Andrew Johnstone

Steinbacher, Kulek No 6

Kildare Street, Dublin

Grieg - Sonata in C minor Op 45.

Fauré - Sonata in A Op 13.

Ravel - Violin Sonata.

Brahms - Sonata in D minor Op 108.

The Munich-born violinist Arabella Steinbacher is a protegee of Anne-Sophie Mutter. She's due to make her Dublin concerto debut with the RTÉ NSO next February in Shostakovich's First Concerto, but the IIB Bank Music in Great Irish Houses festival got in first and presented her in recital at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in Kildare Street on Saturday. She's a gutsy player with a large sound and a fondness for big delivery.

Before the interval, the larger-than-life style of the playing found Steinbacher and her pianist Robert Kulek spending much of the time in overdrive. It's an approach that Grieg's often highly-strung C minor Sonatacertainly encourages, but doesn't actually reward in musical terms. Think of a high-voltage, whodunit plot delivered with the enthusiasm of a football fan roaring support at a match.

Kulek managed to nuance the moments of meaningful light with rather more success than Steinbacher. The hectoring style was applied with too much consistency to Fauré's Sonata in A. There was a transformation for the Ravel after the interval. The driving to extremes and the forcing of tone were replaced by a more easy-going give-and-take and the music spoke with greater freedom. There were hints of the pre-interval manner in the moto perpetuofinale of the Ravel, and while Brahms's Sonata in D minoroverheated from time to time, the dynamic and expressive exaggerations were milder than earlier. - Michael Dervan

The Garden Party,

Ballinlough Castle, Athboy

British 80s duo the Pet Shop Boys brought their luminous yellows and greens to a more natural environment at last weekend's Garden Party in Meath. Set on the grounds of Ballinlough Castle in Athboy, the festival felt like something out of a strange fairytale with its Enchanted Playground, Holistic Haven and pond full of water lilies and floating candles. Hidden amongst the rose gardens, flower trellises and patches of greenery were disco balls, beanbags, massage tents, multicoloured flags and large, sparkly butterflies.

While the big acts took to the main stage and the Pogo Tent, there were more relaxed scenes at the Ambient Lounge, the Candy marquee and stalls selling everything from feather boas to organic cider.

Love them or loathe them, the Pet Shop Boys certainly know how to put on a show. Backing vocals came from a cowboy dressed in gold and two male dancers with hats full of red and yellow flowers. With barechested male dancers with gold pearls spinning around the stage to a range of hits including West End Girlsand a version of U2's Where the Streets Have No Name(mixed with I Can't Take My Eyes Off You), the crowd of mainly 20-somethings got an energetic helping of retro entertainment.

The predominantly dance and electronica line-up featured Vitallic, which drew a huge crowd with a pulsating, treadmill type set. Hot Chip followed with a lively but somewhat mixed performance ending with their hit tune Over and Over, a classic dance anthem. A more wacky event was Von Sudenfed with Mark E Smith, the legendary frontman of the post-punk band the Fall, who growled and shouted over drum and bass beats. All in black, the infamously difficult 50-something Smith was a remarkable contrast to the somewhat geeky-looking accompaniment at their laptops.

Les Bien played an excellent afternoon set while other highlights in the Pogo Tent were Charles Webster, who mixed moody French-style accordian over chirpy beats, and UCD buddies Redsettaz.

The best fun was to be found in the more hidden corners of the gardens, however, where the likes of Donal Dineen played, every now and then the smell from lavender bushes wafting over a small crew of people dancing or lazing in the sun. - Sorcha Hamilton