Reviews

Reviews today include Lost in a Flurry of Cherry Blossoms at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, the RTE Philharmonic Choir and the Dún Laoghaire Choral Society, both at the NCH, Dublin

Lost in a Flurry of Cherry Blossoms

Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Do not be fooled by the delicate title. In this stunning, hour-long piece, beauty and cruelty exist side by side. The shingeki style of theatre, delivered here by the Tokyo Engeki Ensemble (TEE), is far removed from the Japanese Noh and Kabuki traditions, with which we may be more familiar, and is heavily influenced by modern European playwrights, such as Brecht and Beckett.

Western audiences will immediately respond to the shocking initial image of a beautiful woman bursting through a shimmering gold-leafed screen, pursued by a crazed man.

Having murdered the woman's husband, the bandit outcast proceeds to possess and subdue her into melting submission - a ploy, she will later tell us, widely used by conniving women. In a memorable scene, the victorious man bears the woman away to his mountain home, her weightless body airborne above his. When they arrive, the cherry blossoms fluttering from a cloud-scattered sky seem to celebrate their romantic idyll.

But a relationship begun in such a brutal, treacherous fashion cannot but be doomed. Bored with life away from the city, the woman persuades the man to return her to a life of heady metropolitan pleasures, pushing him into ever more decadent and bloodthirsty ways of satisfying her demands.

Under Tsunetoshi Hirowatari's graphically ritualised direction, Ayumi Kuga and Yoshinori Koke are a compellingly handsome couple, who vividly convey the poetic resonance of Ango Sakaguchi's original prose story based on a medieval fable.

Themes of loneliness and rejection, love and desire, the place of the outsider in society, the sexual power of woman and shifting gender roles are examined within a framework of gorgeous sets and costumes and haunting music.

And all the while, the cherry blossom drifts and billows, building to a violent, aggressive storm, engulfing the hapless bandit and his monstrous female prize.

Tours to Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin (16th to 19th March) and Granary Theatre, Cork (22nd March)

RTE Philharmonic Choir, RTE NSO/Anissimov

NCH, Dublin

Stravinsky - In memoriam Dylan Thomas. Symphony of Psalms. Mozart - Requiem.

Stravinsky's 1954 memorial for the poet Dylan Thomas, with whom he had been planning an opera, has more than a touch of the medieval in its musical austerity. In memoriam Dylan Thomas, scored for tenor, string quartet and four trombones, is in fact just the sort of piece that would respond to the kind of illuminating and enlivening touch that is expected these days of anyone approaching medieval music.

Unfortunately, in Friday's performance with members of the RTÉ NSO, Alexander Anissimov delivered it with a dead hand, the canonic lines congealed, the overall shape hard to make out. Tenor soloist Robin Tritschler didn't stand much of a chance in the face of such an undifferentiated accompaniment. Happily, the concert took an immediate turn for the better with Stravinsky's 1930 choral masterpiece, the Symphony of Psalms. There's more than a whiff of ritual to this music, and the solid propulsiveness of Anissimov's approach was both severe and touching.

The often extraordinary colouring of the unusually-constituted orchestra (heavy-duty wind and brass, harp, two pianos, but no violins or violas) was vividly conveyed, and the contributions of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir showed real fibre.

Anissimov chose some unusual speeds in Mozart's Requiem (sometimes above sometimes below what you might expect), yet the overall gravity of his approach was highly persuasive. This was one of those performances where every last detail was made to mean something.

I have never heard Robin Tritschler sounding in more commanding form than in his solos on this occasion. He is a singer whose promise has long been evident, but whose delivery, in my experience, has often been questionable. Those questions were all cast aside by the easy mastery of Friday's performance.

Soprano Ailish Tynan was on equally fine form, everything comfortably within her reach, the vocal line nuanced with subtle delicacy.

Mezzo soprano Bridget Knowles and baritone Philip O'Reilly completed what was one of the most musically balanced vocal quartets it's been my pleasure to hear in quite a while, and the members of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir seemed to be able to give Anissimov everything he asked of them.

Dún Laoghaire Choral Society, Irish Sinfonia/Garvey;

NCH, Dublin

Mendelssohn - Elijah

Cork-born Cathal Garvey is a young conductor knocking at the door. His studies include two years in Moscow and lessons with Gerhard Markson, and he is principal conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players. His most prominent achievement has been his transforming impact at Opera Ireland since becoming chorus master in 1999.

Saturday night's performance of Elijah at the National Concert Hall by the Dún Laoghaire Choral Society - of which Garvey became musical director last summer - will have been among the most high-profile milestones in his steady tread to a career on the podium. Having professional soloists and players allowed him to focus on exploiting all that is best in a large amateur choir - intense dedication rooted in a passion for music - while minimising the imperfections.

Near the start it wasn't clear if he would achieve this. After a dramatic atmosphere was established by Elijah's opening words and a smooth, understated account of the overture, the choir's first chorus revealed uncertainty among the men as well as hints of flat tuning.

It must have been initial nerves, because thereafter the choir was strong and confident, especially when singing dramatic roles such as the people calling for the slaughter of the Baalites. In Mendelssohn's many Bach-inspired contrapuntal passages the independently overlapping choral parts sounded sure and well-shaped. Garvey not only has good musical instincts but also the technical proficiency to communicate them to his choir and players.

A strong line-up of soloists was led by bass Brian Bannatyne-Scott who - though often just under the note - brought the title-role to life with light, narrative clarity. Irish-Finnish tenor Niall Chorell was lyrical and effective in the small role of Obadiah; soprano Lynda Lee sounds even better, I think, in this kind of 19th-century music than in her more customary baroque repertoire; and Colette McGahon's warm delivery of the paradoxically tranquil alto aria "Woe to them who forsake Him!" was a highlight.

Small parts for boy-treble and a trio of angels were all well taken.