Cliona Doris (harp)

The Crown of Ariadne - R. Murray Schafer

`Curves' - Donnacha Dennehy

Impressive playing and absorbing music made last Thursday's lunchtime concert in the Bank of Ireland Mostly Modern series a winner, with Doris's projected tone, rhythmic animation and quiet panache making the most of each piece. Schafer's The Crown of Ariadne is the fifth part of the composer's massive cyclic project Patria, which began in 1966 and is still evolving. Centred around ideas drawn from classical mythology, especially the stories of Ariadne, Patria consists to date of 12 concert and unconventional theatrical works, some of them many hours long.

The Crown of Ariadne is a seven-movement suite in which the harpist also plays percussion instruments. The sounds of small cymbals, woodblocks and percussive harp effects mingle with that instrument's traditional sonorities to evoke primitivism without once succumbing to its vulgarities. In the last movement of this disciplined, purposeful piece, the harp subtly contrasts or merges with sounds from a pre-recorded tape.

A similar relationship between live and recorded sound can be heard in Donnacha Dennehy's Curves which, though composed in 1996, was receiving its first performance. This music sets harp and tape in an effective, almost combative discourse. The vigorous style of performance made the ending, where the harp only just gets the last word, entirely apposite.