John O’Conor and Friends

NCH, Dublin

Schubert – Sonata in A D664.

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.

Violin Sonata in D D384.

Selection of songs.

Trout Quintet.

Success is sometimes slow in coming. When Schubert died in Vienna at the age of 31 in 1828, his last two symphonies, the Unfinished and the Great C major were still unperformed. They wouldn’t be heard in public until 1865 and 1839 respectively.

Difficult as the composer’s life undoubtedly was, he also had a circle of devoted friends and followers. Their support often manifested itself in the form of Schubertiads, evenings devoted to the celebration of the composer’s music.

The first to be documented was in 1821 with Schubert and 14 friends in attendance.

One of those present wrote: “A lot of marvellous songs by Schubert were played and sung by himself. This went on until past ten o’clock, after which we drank punch, offered by one of the guests . . . with the result that it was three o’clock in the morning before we separated.”

Friday’s evening of music- making by John O’Conor and Friends was offered in the spirit of a Schubertiad, with an all-Schubert programme that was neatly rounded off by 10.30pm.

O’Conor dedicated the concert to the NCH’s former director, Judith Woodworth (whose successor is due to be announced shortly), and presided genially at the piano for the whole of the evening.

It was an evening of mostly unruffled music-making. O’Conor’s handling of the Piano Sonata in A, D644, established the style of the evening in a performance that was mellow both in manner and in tone.

Violinist Miriam Fried joined him for a judiciously understated performance of the Sonata in D, D384. Soprano Ailish Tynan and clarinettist Macdara Ó Seireadáin took a generously spacious view of Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, and O’Conor was joined by Fried, viola-player John Lynch, cellist Christopher Marwood and double bassist Malachy Robinson for a warm-hearted account of the evergreen Trout Quintet.

The high point of the evening, however, came at the end of Tynan’s group of solo songs, when the action slowed and time almost stood still in stirring accounts of An die Musik and Nacht und Träume.