Reviews

Irish Timeswriters review a selection of events

McGonnell, Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert

National Gallery, Dublin

Haydn- String Trio in G, Op 53, No 1.

Elliott Carter- Con Leggerezza Pensosa.

Copland- Sextet (1937). Schumann - Piano Quintet.

The Music for Museums project brings together musicians from both sides of the Atlantic to present seven performances in museums in Ireland and the United States. The artistic director is the Dublin-born clarinettist, Carol McGonnell, who appeared in this opening concert of the series alongside the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert.

The excellent programme began with two trios, Haydn's String Trio in G, Op 53, No 1, and Elliott Carter's trio for clarinet, violin and cello, Con Leggerezza Pensosa. The latter lasts just under five minutes, but leaves nothing unsaid. The superbly paced performance was impeccable in the way it captured the music's rapid changes of character and deft contrasts.

The acoustic of the National Gallery's Shaw Room caused some problems. In the Haydn, for example, placing the cello to face directly down the centre aisle created an unwelcome boom. A small shift of position restored balance, at least from my position next to the aisle.

Copland's Sextet (1937) for string quartet, clarinet and piano is a fearsome challenge, combining technical virtuosity with a symphonic scale of expression. (It is an arrangement of the composer's Short Symphony, written four years earlier.) It seemed to hold no terrors for these players, who played with a mixture of bravado and subtle colour that did it full justice.

Schumann's Piano Quintet also was on a symphonic scale, but was never forced. The sensuality of the Scherzo's middle section was extraordinary and, at all times, the range of expression and colour was perfectly judged to suit the large-scale design.

All six musicians have played as soloists with some of the world's front-rank orchestras, but they know how to be front-rank chamber musicians too - powerful musical personalities who are able to fit with one another to put the music first. Martin Adams

Stars of the Lid

Whelan's, Dublin

Most bands make music that transfers naturally to a live setting. A few minor tweaks here and there, some audience participation and a dose of adrenaline-fuelled energy is enough to put on a show that will send punters home satisfied.

Stars of the Lid are not one of those bands. As the undisputed kings of drone and ambient-based recordings, Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie have continued to push the boundaries and blur the line between classical and electronic music since forming in Austin, Texas, 15 years ago.

And Their Refinement of the Decline, this year's opus and the band's first album in six years, saw a shift in dynamic, with a stronger sense of melody replacing the drone-heavy experimentalism of their earlier work.

Playing their first gig in Dublin ("We're happy to be here, I guess," was Wiltzie's understated greeting), the duo have enlisted the help of a three-piece string section and projectionist to add further aural and visual elements to their sonic landscapes. With McBride manning the Mac and Wiltzie teasing reverb-heavy noise from his guitar, it was left to the viola, violin and cello to bring life to the compositions.

Tippy's Demiseis a perfect homage to two of the bands main influences, Brian Eno and Henryk Górecki, while Even if You're Never Awake (Deuxiéme),with its digitally processed brass intro giving way to a stunning viola melody and lush orchestral finale, was one of the obvious highlights of the set.

It could be argued that Whelan's is not the most suitable venue for this type of performance. The incessant din from the bar was a constant unwelcome distraction, but as each piece segued into the next, the hypnotic and occasionally transcendent nature of the music more than made up for any extraneous problems.

Bringing the one-hour set to a close, the epic December Huntingencapsulated the band's sound in 17 glorious minutes. Although their work is sparse and frequently haunting, Stars of the Lid make music that is essentially beautiful and full of hope, a perfect antidote to a cold winter's evening. Brian Keane

Ensemble Avalon

Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin

Franck- Trio Concertant. Paul Schoenfield- Cafe Music.

There was a matinee spirit about the Ensemble Avalon's two-piece programme at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Both pieces - one French and one American, in keeping with the Avalon's An American and Parisseries at the gallery - were characterised to varying degrees by lightness and informality.

Franck's teenage student work, the Trio Concertant in B flat, is aptly subtitled trio de salonand is notable more for its pleasant surface than any claim to great substance. The composer's Germanic models can be heard loud and clear in the Schubertian opening movement and in the occasionally somewhat bombastic finale.

The bland minuet is preceded by a melodic Andantino which makes the piece worth hearing.

Detroit-born Paul Schoenfield's inspiration was a night he deputised as pianist with the house trio at Murray's Restaurant in Minneapolis. The trio's wide range of repertoire impressed him and he tried to encapsulate both this and the spirit of their playing in his three-movement Cafe Music from 1986.

Without sounding at all like Gershwin, this high-spirited piece cleverly wraps ragtime, jazz influences and sentimental blues colours in well-crafted classical-music procedures. Which makes it sound awful. However, it wasn't. It set toes tapping and fitted in perfectly with the event's matinee feeling.

Interestingly, there was never any let-up in the Avalon's commitment or intensity, suggesting that musicians can never really take light music lightly. Pianist Michael McHale switched easily from the rich harmonies of the Franck to the dancing, oom-cha energy of ragtime.

Violinist Ioanna Petcu-Colan provided a sweet lyricism in both pieces, and Gerald Peregrine stole the show in the long, romantic cello solo in the slow movement of the Franck.

The trio concludes its series at the Hugh Lane on Sunday, December 9th, with Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor and the Piano Trio by Bernstein. Michael Dungan