Reviews

Irish Times writers review the Ulster Orchestra with Vernon Handley, a performance by clarinettist Ronald Van Spaendonck and pianist Alexandre Tharaud and the work of artists Eilis O'Connell and Clare Langan.

Ulster Orchestra - Vernon Handley, Ulster Hall, Belfast

By Dermot Gault

Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet; Bax - Violin Concerto; Elgar - Enigma Variations.

Fifty years to the day after Arnold Bax died suddenly while on a visit to Co Cork, the Ulster Orchestra played his Violin Concerto with the young Canadian violinist Chantal Juillet. Only the romantic middle movement fits the conventional image of Bax as a rhapsodic dreamer. Stylistically the outer movements are a puzzle, for although the idiom is accessible enough the musical substance remains elusive.

The concerto was written in the 1930s for Heifetz, who never played it, became popular in the 1940s and 1950s, before becoming neglected, and was revived by Ralph Holmes in the 1980s.

But it is hard to imagine a more persuasive performance than Chantal Juillet's, lively, coaxing and songful by turns, and keeping a full characterful tone.

The Ulster Orchestra has seldom played better for their new Conductor Laureate, Vernon Handley. He recorded the Tchaikovsky work with them some years ago, but this performance was more dramatic, the intensity building upwards from the full-toned, brooding cellos and basses in the introduction.

Handley kept the Elgar moving, emphasising the work's symphonic continuity, and was evidently concerned that 'Nimrod' should not become a nostalgic wallow. Good balance allowed the inner melodic lines to sing naturally.

Van Spaendonck, Tharaud, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda

By Martin Adams

Schumann - Fantasiestücke Op 73; Brahms - Sonata in F minor Op 120 No 1; Lutoslawski - Dance Preludes; Ravel - Ondine; Stravinsky - Three Pieces for solo clarinet; Pierné - Canzonetta; Debussy - Petite pièce; Première rapsodie; Poulenc - Clarinet Sonata.

The Belgian clarinettist Ronald Van Spaendonck seems able to do anything. In last Friday's concert, the first in a Music Network tour with the French pianist Alexandre Tharaud, differences between the German music in the first half and the French in the second were underlined by making each piece utterly individual. Yet this was not achieved by putting on German or French dress.

The worlds of Brahms's Sonata in F minor Op. 120 No. 1, and Debussy's Première rapsodie were contrasted through a calculated, yet seemingly spontaneous concentration on techniques suited to the moment and to general character.

Van Spaendonck's musical personality was as prominent as that of the music; yet his control of colour, volume and everything else was persuasive.

In parts of the Debussy, in the fourth of Lutoslawski's Dance Preludes and the slow movement of Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata, one kept thinking that his sound could not get quieter. But it did. In the third movement of the Brahms, the low chalumeau tone was astonishingly powerful; in the first of Stravinsky's Three Pieces for solo clarinet, extraordinarily quiet.

Alexandre Tharaud is a duo partner who can do everything required, seems as cool as a cucumber, and whose only solo, Ondine from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, was a highlight.

Van Spaendonck's platform presence is like his playing - charged with tense energy. He relishes his ability. And why not?

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Eilís O'Connell and Clare Langan, Fenton Gallery, Cork

By Mark Ewart

In terms of thematic intent, the work of Eilís O'Connell and Clare Langan do bare some comparison. Both artists reflect upon the erosion of place, object and time, and how this impacts upon humankind. A more obvious parallel, however, is the way in which both produce highly-sophisticated and resolved artworks.

O'Connell's sculptures are remarkable artefacts, full of mystery and intrigue as they belong to an unspecified culture or age.

Generally her inspiration comes from investigation of organic subjects, the human form, or a variety of implements and accoutrements. The striking thing about the work is its ambiguity, existing as either seductive elegant objects or as functioning devices.

Clare Langan's artwork rests predominately within the field of film-making and installation-based practice. For this exhibition she shows still images taken from her film, Glass Hour.

The images range from bleak empty spaces to industrialised landscapes spewing smoke. However, within the bleakness there is an undeniable beauty.