Reviews

Irish Times writers reveiw North Cregg at Mother Redcaps and Thierry Fischer conducting the Ulster Symphony Orchestra.

North Cregg

Mother Redcaps

For a band that hadn't been in town for the best part of three years, North Cregg were inordinately reluctant to take to the stage last Friday night. Ably supported by Dermot O'Brien on fiddle, Conal Earley on guitar and Edel Vaughan on vocals, they finally loped on stage, with no small measure of trepidation.

The polkas and slides of Sliabh Luachra occupy the greatest share of their DNA helix, but lately North Cregg have been engaged in their own brand of musical stem-cell research: harvesting a singer by the name of Fiona Kelleher and a rake of songs from Appalachia, Scotland and home, and giving them both enough room to flourish amid the band's welcoming gabháil.

Even though they had included vocals of their own in the past, Fiona Kelleher's arrival has cemented rather than sundered North Cregg's sound, adding a finely honed storyline to an already picaresque journey.

Christy Leahy, North Cregg's maître d' and accordionist, carries the night with verve. His Cork-centric introductions met with muted responses on occasion, but still he persevered.

They hit the ground running with a spirited set of polkas borrowed from the playing of the great Jackie Daly, and inhabited O'Callaghan's Polka with the verve and enthusiasm of kidnappers who had no intention of ever returning their quarry to its owner.

Leahy's accordion inhaled and exhaled every note with the finesse of a synchronised swimmer, submerged cosily alongside Caoimhín Vallely's fiddle and Paul Meehan's guitar. Somehow the fiery inclusion of keyboards and percussion crowded the landscape, creating a sound that'd quell invading armies, but would do little to soothe tired spirits with its steamroller impact.

Kelleher's lithe voice carved a welcome swathe through the wall of sound, her ease with material as diverse as John Martyn's Spencer The Rover and Tim O'Brien's Walk Beside Me a testament to her considerable talent.

All night North Cregg waxed and waned with the power of an oncoming tsunami. A tempering of their tendency to showcase all their baubles at once might serve them well.

 - Siobhan Long

Nelson, UO/Fischer

Ulster Hall, Belfast

Dermot gault

Beethoven - Symphony No 1.

Mozart - Come scoglio.

L'amerò, sarò costante. Dove sono. Beethoven - Symphony No 5.

Ten years after the Ulster Orchestra first performed all Beethoven's symphonies in one season comes another cycle, this time conducted by the orchestra's principal conductor Thierry Fischer.

In the 1993 cycle some of the performances reflected Historically Informed performance practice, at least to the extent of observing Beethoven's challenging metronome markings, but the results were sometimes metronomic in the wrong sense. Fischer, however, understands that tempo does not exist independently of phrasing, rhythm and articulation, and at its best, as in the finale of the Fifth Symphony, the playing caught the freshness this music must have had for its first listeners.

Emphases were placed where Beethoven asks for them, and the silences were allowed to make their full impact. But at other times the tempi imposed an artificial tension on the playing, and the first movement was weakened by introducing diminuendos in passages whose effect depends on an insistent forte being maintained.

The First Symphony was similarly light if a bit lightweight, and only the scherzo went beneath the surface, some carefully rationed outbursts for trumpets and timpani notwithstanding.

The Mozart arias made an effective foil for the Beethoven. Mary Nelson has a bright, flexible soprano, and her steady tone was just right for Come scoglio from Così fan tutte. The highlight here, however, was the lovely aria from Il re pastorè with the violin obbligato played by Lesley Hatfield.

 - Dermot Gault