Ensemble/David Brophy

Philip's Peace - Elaine Agnew

Sonata in D for violin and viola - Haydn

The Big Sky - Elaine Agnew

Violin Sonata - Ravel

Sonata in B flat for violin and viola - Haydn

Wait and See - Elaine Agnew

Introducing her work as featured composer of this year's Boyle Arts Festival on Wednesday, Elaine Agnew (born 1967) described Philip's Peace (1994) for cello and piano as the first piece she'll now "admit to writing".

Like most of her music that I've heard, it chooses its spot and has a tethered energy set into relief by music of contemplative stasis, rising occasionally to lines of lyrical ardency.

The style owes a lot to minimalism, but the processes reveal themselves less clearly; and, with material that's rarely distinctive, both the interest of the moment and the pleasure of anticipation are limited.

Philip's Peace, played by Eckart Schwarz-Schulz (cello) and David Brophy (piano), seemed a lot easier for the performers to crack than The Big Sky (2001) for solo piano.

Brophy stayed the course manfully, but the impression I received, as at the work's premiΦre last May, was of a piece where the actuality of what was being done - the blurring movement of the start, for instance, or the striding left hand writing later on - was more important than its quality. This may well be a reflection of the extent to which Agnew has been involved in music education work with children. That side of her output was represented in Boyle by Wait and See, a setting for girl's chorus and string quintet of children's texts collected and ordered by Charlotte Cory, the words of the girls of Mercy Primary School in the Crumlin Road, Belfast, sung on this occasion by the girls of the Convent of Mercy National School, Boyle.

David Brophy conducted, and steered the singers and players successfully through some awkward rhythmic corners. The enthusiasm and energy of the occasion was greatly aided by the vivid juxtapositions of the words.

This is not children's music of the calibre of Britten, Bart≤k or Kurtβg. But it provided a fine platform for the young choir, who gave a performance they can be proud of.

Also on the programme were Ravel's Violin Sonata in G (from a rarely comfortable-sounding Ken Rice and a patchily insightful David Brophy) and two Haydn sonatas for violin and viola, played by Diane Daly and Lisa Grosman.

In the Sonata in B flat, with its preponderance of slowish music, they gave what was for me the most rewarding performance of the evening.