Sinéad Gleeson reviews Electric Picnic and David Adams organ recital at St Michael's, Dún Laoghaire is reviewed by Michael Dervan
Electric Picnic: Sunday
One of the best things about multi-stage festivals is the serendipity of catching acts you didn't plan to see. One such, the Rapture, turned out to be one of the high points of the whole weekend. The New Yorkers do a fine line in dirty rock and were a direct contrast to the act that preceded them - Hot Chip.
Their album The Warning has been touted as one of the year's finest, but their guitars-meets-electronica fusion seemed lukewarm on the day.
For anyone feeling the effects of the previous two days, Sunday had plenty of languid fare on offer. Acts such as the Blue Nile, Richard Hawley and Rufus Wainwright catered for those taking it easy, but there were plenty of upbeat options too.
Grandmaster Melle Mel got a sizeable crowd jumping around with old-school hip-hop classics such as Rappers' Delight and The Breaks, while Amadou & Mariam's Afro blues were a breath of fresh air.
UK DJ duo Coldcut pounded out everything from breakbeat to the Jungle Book soundtrack, via their distinctive VJamm system that allows them to manipulate their visuals by scratching records.
As the sun went down, the pace began to pick up when Yeah Yeah Yeahs took to the main arena. Any accusations of style over substance were put to bed by a blistering set by Karen O and co. Pet Shop Boys played to a packed Electric Arena, against a distinctive backdrop, energetic dancers and a crowd who knew the words to every song. There was no better way to draw things to a close than Basement Jaxx, who taunted and tamed an ecstatic crowd with their beat-driven funk.
Apart from "where are you?" text messages and "see you at the left of the sound desk", one of the most uttered phrases of the weekend was about the festival's similarity to Glastonbury. Much of this is due to the eclectic line-up, but it's more than that. There's an overwhelming sense of positivity in the air. People apologise for bumping into you; strangers offer you handwipes in the toilet queues and it's an altruism that extends past the music.
The organisers have already started lining up acts for next year's three-day event and we can only hope that it matches the uniqueness of this year.
David Adams organ recital, St Michael's, Dún Laoghaire
David Adams's organ recital at St Michael's, Dún Laoghaire marked the close of the 33rd annual series at the church. It also marked the departure of Anne Leahy as the church's director of music and as director of the series itself.
Adams chose an all-French programme, citing as his reason the reputation in French music of Leahy's teacher, Ben van Oosten, and her own known fondness for the music of Jehan Alain - the evening provided more music by Alain in one sitting than I've ever come across at an organ recital before.
And, since Bach left a fantasia that's long been known under the French title Pièce d'orgue, Leahy's consuming passion for Bach was acknowledged, too, like a keystone at the apex of the evening.
Alain, who died in action in 1940 at the age of 29 (and was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre), has won a small but consistent presence in the organ repertoire.
Adams, playing the two Fantaisies, the Trois Danses and the popular Litanies, reflected the composer's ability to conjure atmospheric affects with apparently minimal effort and his often-exuberant rhythmic intricacy as faithfully as the more lugubrious concerns of parts of the Trois Danses.
Exuberance was the characteristic of Adams's opening work, an Offertoire by Lefébure-Wély, which he offered as a portrait of Leahy. And the Bach scholar must also have been well-pleased with the sheer joie de vivre of Bach's Pièce d'orgue, delivered as a single, sustained burst of musical energy.
