McGahon, Brophy, Callino Quartet

Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin

Boyle – Songs; String Quartet in E minor

The prolific but relatively unknown Irish composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) died an eccentric recluse in the house outside Enniskerry where she had lived all her life. As she grew older, she withdrew from the real world, instead immersing herself in music, paintings and literature, especially poetry.

Such isolation made it difficult for her to champion the pieces she wrote, which in turn meant that most were never performed or published. She did not go unnoticed, however, her greatest success being her 1919 orchestral rhapsody The Magic Harpwhich was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult.

There is currently a revival of interest in her music: Catherine Leonard gave the premiere of the 1935 Violin Concerto with the Ulster Orchestra last August, Field Day Publications will publish a biography by Dr Ita Beausang later this year, and then there was the present concert, last in a series of three funded by the Arts Council.

It opened with a selection of songs, settings of Walter de la Mare, Pádraig Pearse, Robert Herrick, Mary Coleridge and Pamela Grey. The ones we heard reflected Elizabeth Maconchy’s summary in an affectionate 1974 tribute, that most of Boyle’s music “is predominantly quiet and serious, never brilliant, though it has its moments of wit or passion”.

It also came across as simple but carefully crafted, nothing too challenging or distracting in the piano parts, played with sensitivity by David Brophy. There was colour in small details, such as a hint of the orient in a little pentatonic figure that recurs throughout “All souls’ flower” (Grey) or the influence of Anglican church music in the shifting chords of “Eternity” (Herrick). Melodic lines were fluid and lyrical, and sung here with warmth and understanding by mezzo- soprano Colette McGahon standing in at very short notice for the indisposed Victoria Massey.

The simplicity of the songs gave way to greater complexity but the same overlying spirit in the E minor String Quartet from 1934. Here very clearly was the influence of Vaughan Williams with whom she regularly studied during visits to London until the outbreak of war in 1939. The piece has a sombre, noble English pastoral sound, with an initial intensity that increases in the slow second movement before easing somewhat in the lilting finale.

It’s this intensity which lingers afterwards and which was captured so well by the committed playing of the Callino Quartet.