Irish Times writers give their verdict.
Levin, ICO/McGegan
MBNA Shannon International Music Festival
Michael Dervan
Haydn - Symphony No 30. Mozart - Piano Concerto in F K459. Boccherini - Quintet in C G324 (La Musica Notturna dell strade di Madrid). Haydn - Symphony No 45 (Farewell).
Sunday's closing concert of the festival saw Nicholas McGegan ending his three-year term as music director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra and artistic director of the festival. The concert found the conductor at the top of his form, presenting symphonies by Haydn, both familiar and unfamiliar, as well as some pieces by Mozart and Boccherini which offered some unexpected twists.
Haydn's symphonies are a body of work held in the highest estimation by professional musicians, although the musical public's love for them is uneven enough for a number of complete recording projects to have come unstuck.
On this occasion McGegan opened with No 30 in C. As a one-time flautist one can easily imagine him having a special fondness for Haydn's sensitive highlighting of that instrument in this particular work. And he ended with the famous Farewell symphony, choosing to exit himself with the last pair of fiddles still playing on the stage, to create a confidently forward-looking metaphor for the orchestra's continuing achievement.
In between the two symphonies Robert Levin gave a characteristically sharply-etched account of Mozart's Piano Concerto in F, K459, playing a lidless, modern concert grand, placed end-on to the audience, with lots of front-loaded phrasing, and improvised cadenzas which thundered adventurously enough to upset listeners of conservative taste.
La Musica Notturna dell strade di Madrid is a rare example of programme music by Boccherini. A typically buoyant McGegan made the most of its opportunities for musical showmanship. The players seemed to enjoy letting their hair down as much as the composer did, and the audience lapped it up gratefully. A good time was had by all.
George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars
Vicar St, Dublin
Kevin Courtney
"Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!" When Dr Funkenstein issues the booty call, you better not ignore it. It's nearly 10pm and Vicar St is filled with eager funkateers. The room shakes to the boom of bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, sax, trumpet and whatever you're having yourself. Thank God it's Friday - it looks like we're gonna be here all night.
George Clinton is 64, and what better way to celebrate his birthday than by bringing his legendary P-Funk Allstars to Europe's party capital, and taking his Dublin devotees for another trip. His crew - as usual - is massive: I counted 18 musicians onstage, and that was before Clinton even came on. At the height of Parliament-Funkadelic's fame in the 1970s, a giant mothership would descend onto the stage, from which the commander would emerge, but at Vicar St there isn't even enough stage space to drop Spinal Tap's mini-Stonehenge. However, the zoot suits, afros, dreads and threads make for a riot of psychedelic colour, and the music - amazingly - is as tight as a pair of hot pants.
Who needs motherships when you've got the mother of all party bands? When Clinton shuffles onstage, his multicoloured hair extensions flowing over his white jumpsuit, the crowd has been well and truly primed, so all Dr Funkenstein has to do is keep them pumped up with such classic P-Funk joints as Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk), Flash Light and the aforementioned Get off your Ass and Jam. The songs, though, are little more than jumping-off points for extended jams. Clinton plays the funky emcee, helped by a rotating crew of female singers, including Kendra Foster and his teenager granddaughter, rapper Sativa, whose raps turned the air a funky shade of blue.
Needless to say, the party went on far longer than scheduled, but hey, we've got all Saturday morning to rest our weary asses.
Strings
Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
Christie Taylor
Choreographers have long tried to merge classical and contemporary dance, and those who have done so successfully have helped ballet continue as one of the most compelling art forms. But keeping things relevant demands more than putting fouette turns to lyrics. It requires building on a solid past and mapping out a clear vision for the future.
The 13 performers in Chrysalis Dance displayed technical potential in Judith Sibley's ballet Strings, wearing simple white costumes and occasionally, pointe shoes. As they danced to singer-songwriter Paddy Casey's specially-tailored songs, the dancing incorporated some moderately advanced ballet- class movements with other steps that strove to be contemporary. Occasionally the performers' ability peaked, but the choreography remained flat. The ballet looked trapped in a 1980s cocoon.
Chrysalis Dance tries to create a contemporary dance style using a classical vocabulary, and has assembled a cast of dancers including Sibley, Greet Boterman, Monica Loughman and Amy Lawson, all of whom have trained abroad. Although these members of the cast performed ably, and Michael Cooney, Maurice Kelliher and Icleiber Klaus proved suitable partners, technique and enthusiasm never made up for the ballet's lack of innovation. Ballets such as this one have been performed for years.
Through most of the program's first half and in certain parts of the second, the dancing looked stilted. Although Sibley and Klaus loosened up in their duet, the basic partnering steps rarely made use of their strong onstage rapport. Unusual rhythms, stillness and unexpected jumps might have helped, but instead, this example of ballet barely got off the ground.
