Reviews

Waltons Guitar Festival of Ireland Various venues, DublinA summer school that celebrates an instrument with many guises, this year's Waltons Guitar Festival of Ireland has welcomed several international classical players, among them the celebrated John Williams.

Though he's been a renowned soloist for decades, it was in a chiefly accompanimental role that he appeared at the NCH last Thursday. For most of the concert, the spotlight fell on his multi-tasking collaborator Richard Harvey.

The title of their programme, World Tour, referred not to a global series of venues but rather to a global selection of music that sampled the cultures of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. It began on home ground with a sonata in F by Handel. Though Williams conjured up a more-than-adequate substitute for the original harpsichord part, indiscreet amplification meant that it overshadowed Harvey's agile and expressive recorder obbligato. This balance problem was niggling throughout the concert.

In a set of five medieval dances that came next, the breadth of Harvey's expertise began to show itself. In two dances, he switched between drum and a 2nd recorder. For one dance he played on a 3rd recorder, another on an ocarina, and yet another on the psaltery - a kind of lap-top zither that was popular in the Middle Ages.

These dances, like much of the other music, were arranged by Harvey, whose original composition, Enfield Dances, showed that he can change style as easily as he can change instrument (here from panpipes to mandolin and low whistle).

A set of Irish tunes (including Carolan's Concerto, Farewell to Music and Fanny Power) introduced yet more recorders and a primitive, wiry-sounding fiddle. With a blend of ceílí-band unison playing, drones and quasi medieval harmonies, Harvey's deft settings placed this familiar local material in a refreshingly cosmopolitan context.

North America was represented by Fred Hand's Prayer (a charming, song-like piece alla Finzi) which Harvey played on clarinet. Three Latin-American pieces included Piazzolla's regretful Café 1930, another clarinet solo that also gave Williams scope for some exquisite shadings.

In a Javanese impression, Harvey played psaltery and recorder simultaneously. In a fragment of ancient Chinese music, his chalumeau convincingly stood in for a native reed instrument. And for Engome by Cameroonian composer Francis Bebey, he picked up an African thumb piano. All this would have more than matched a lesser artist than Williams. On his single instrument, however, he effortlessly equalled the tonal variety of the dozen and more played by his colleague.

There's a strong educational component to Waltons GFI. One of the resident tutors is British guitarist Clive Carroll, who at short notice replaced Ireland's John Feeley in a solo recital at TCD chapel on Wednesday.

A hand injury prevented Feeley from delivering a programme largely of his own classical transcriptions. Carroll, however, played an impromptu, eclectic and over-amplified mix that was hardly calculated to satisfy a classical audience.

Even in the most conservative item, a pavane and galliard by Dowland, he couldn't suppress the blue notes.

Runs until tomorrow - Andrew Johnstone

Annie Olympia, Dublin

During the Great Depression, a plucky little orphan peered out from a comic strip to give solace to those on the breadline. Later, in the "malaise" years of the late 1970s, the curly-haired idealist conquered Broadway, giving rousingly optimistic tunes to those queuing for gas during the energy crisis. And now, in an economically prosperous summer in Dublin, Annie returns to give leisure-addled kiddies something to do for the holidays.

Such is our familiarity with Charles Strouse and Martin Charin's feelgood musical - grubby-faced cherubs belting out It's the Hard-Knock Life, billionaires enjoying pain-free adoption processes, an 11-year-old brokering the New Deal with President Roosevelt by promising the sun'll come out tomorrow - that this perfunctory touring production feels little pressed to flesh it out.

Thus Chris Colby's staging lets the music do the work, content to palm us off with dispiritingly cheap scenery - leaving the Warbuck mansion as bare as the orphanage - while David Kort's choreography is a by-numbers assembly of twirls and jazz hands.

If this sets the charmless tone of a pantomime, the cast decide not to over-exert themselves unduly. Mrs Hannigan, the villainous orphan-wrangler, is a part to sink one's teeth into. As it is, Ruth Madoc simply nibbles at it, livening up with the occasional killer line ("Did I hear happiness in here?") or when the despicable Rooster (Matthew Hewitt) and Lilly (Carly Hainsby) deliver an enjoyably sleazy Easy Street.

Elsewhere Simon Masterton-Smith (standing in for Mark Wynter) is so gentle as Oliver Warbucks that he seems no match for Emma Hopkins's twinkling, belting Annie, who swiftly teaches him that an orphan is not just for Christmas.

When the production allows its tongue to enter its cheek - such as Annie's Oval Office rendition of Tomorrow - there is a glimmer of what could have come from a more imaginative undertaking. Instead, this Annie is dutiful but uninspired - as though it remembered the lizards, but forgot about the leapin'.

Runs until July 17th - Peter Crawley