CLARINETTIST John Finucane is most frequently heard in concert these days as the principal clarinettist of the National Symphony Orchestra. He's also active as a conductor - regularly with the Dublin Youth Orchestras, the amateur Hibernian Chamber Orchestra, from time to time with the RTECO and the Ulster Orchestra, and he conducted Opera Theatre Company's 1991 programme of four specially commissioned Dublin based operas.
His new series at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, John Finucane and Friends, focuses on chamber music. It's a follow on to IMMA's successful series with pianist Hugh Tinney and harpsichordist Malcolm Proud, and Finucane says it's loosely on the lines of the now defunct Summer Music at Carrolls concerts, "except with more clarinet".
He didn't see much point in a series of four clarinet and piano recitals, so each of his programmes will feature a different line up of musicians. The single clarinet and piano programme (with John O'Conor on Sunday, May 26th), will include the two Brahms. Clarinet Sonatas and the Schumann Fantasiesrncke, recreating the Clara Schumann soiree of 1895, at which the Brahms sonatas were first aired.
The impetus for tomorrow afternoon's opening recital, with soprano Mary Hegarty and pianist Gerald Martin Moore, goes back nine years to an occasion when the soprano and clarinettist met up at Kilkenny Arts Week and decided they should get together to do the Schubert and Spohr.
Finucane rates his work with the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet as the best chamber music playing experiences he's had "the best, ever, ever, ever" - so their collaboration in this particular series was a foregone conclusion. On Sunday, May 12th, they're joining forces again for the Mozart quintet, the premiere of James Wilson's quintet, and the quintet by Weber.
For the remaining concert, on Sunday April 28th, he had hoped to form a new ensemble of septet, octet or no net size. When this proved impractical he chose a number of people he wanted to work with violinist, Michael d'Arcy, leader of the RTECO, and Aisling Drury Byrne, principal cellist of the NSO - and the programme more or less "suggested itself". They'll play the clarinet trios by Beethoven and Brahms, Bartok's Contrasts (written for Benny Goodman), and the trio arrangement of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale. The pianist here, Finghin Collins, is of a different generation. But the Finucane connection is close, as the clarinettist has been giving chamber music coaching to the most successful of Ireland's younger pianists at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
