Concorde/Suffering Zelda

Suite 749 - Suffering Zelda

Into the Wordless - Jane O'Leary

Con Leggerezza Pensosa - Elliott Carter

You Never Know What's Round the Corner - Stephen Gardner

`A historic occasion" was how the mayor of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council described Wednesday night's concert at the Church of Ireland, Monks town. So he should, for it was celebrating the first composer-in-residence scheme sponsored by a county council in this state.

Last October, Stephen Gardner took up the new one-year post, and this concert included a work created under his guidance by the five-member ensemble, Suffering Zelda.

Their Suite 749 consists of free improvisations for amplified flute, saxophone, guitars, keyboard and piano, around specific core material.

The harmonic vocabulary includes a mix of jazz and Michael Nyman, while loose, almost-minimalist patterns, create an easy continuity which could sustain itself for five hours as readily as the 35 minutes taken up by this performance.

Also on the programme were two works not connected with the residency. Concorde played a revised version of Jane O'Leary's Into the Word- less, which they premiered last May, plus Con Leggerezza Pensosa for clarinet, violin and cello, which sees Elliott Carter packing into seven minutes more than many composers can achieve in 70.

During his time in Dun Laoghaire, Stephen Gardner has produced You Never Know What's Round the Corner. Scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion, this is a piece - and they are not all that common - which palpably realises a metaphor without relying on the literalism of film music.

It exploits pent-up energy and expectation with a force and individuality which evade ready stylistic classification.

Gardner knows how to use rhythm, both within a phrase and in large-scale timing of sections. This performance would have been even more effective if the playing had matched the music's crispness.

Nevertheless, the experience made one sit up and take notice.