REVIEWS

Irish Timeswriters review a number of recent performances.

The Lassus Scholars, Pearson/O'Donovan

NCH Dublin

Vierne - Scherzo (Symphony No 1). Impromptu. Lassus - Jubilate Deo.

Ave verum. Christus resurgens. Victoria - Lauda Sion. Vierne - Feux follets. Toccata. Stanford - Three Motets Op 38. Mozart - Orgelsolo Messe K259.

COMBINING CHORAL and organ music to create a coherent programme is not easy. In this concert, the second of the National Concert Hall's ORGANics series, there was nothing wrong with the underlying principle - works for organ by one composer, between stylistically contrasted groups of choral polyphony, and a final work in which organ and choir work together.

However, successive groups of character-pieces by Vierne and choral polyphony by Lassus, Victoria and Stanford produced a jerky sequence of contrasts. Perhaps it would have been better to group all the organ works together, and all the choral ones likewise? Charles Pearson's organ playing had a loose-limbed, go-for-it style that can be quite appropriate for Vierne.

However, blurred detail and technical inconsistencies damped down the dramatic tensions of works such as the Scherzo from Symphony No. 1, and three pieces from the Op. 54 Pièces de Fantaisie, notably the Toccata from the Second Suite.

The Lassus Scholars sang confidently and securely, and Ite O'Donovan's conducting produced a bouncy rhythmic style that was effective in Lassus's festive Christus resurgens. There was also a tendency to present all the choral music with a stylistic straightforwardness and consistency that did not make much of the expressive potential of Victoria's Lauda Sion; and Stanford's Three Motets Op. 38 were wanting in the combination of slow pulse, long line and flexibility that can deeply mine this music's restrained sensuality.

For Mozart's Orgelsolo Mass, K259, the Lassus Scholars and Charles Pearson were joined by soloists Vivienne Hassell, Sharon Carty, Eoin Murphy and John Magee. I would have preferred a more flexible, considered mode of phrasing and timing; but this performance had different priorities, aiming for, and generally achieving, a directness that did not try and milk the music for expressive depths it does not have. - MARTIN ADAMS

Series concludes on Friday at 1.05 pm with the National Chamber Choir, organist Fergal Caulfield, and conductor David Brophy.

Thecocknbullkid/ Robotnik

Button Factory, Dublin

CATCHING A nascent talent before the hype and hyperbole get out of control is one of the genuine unadulterated pleasures of gig-going, and that rare flicker of pleasure was provided by this Club NME presentation.

East Londoner Anita Blay goes by the unwieldy moniker Thecocknbullkid (she evidently has no truck with spaces or apostrophes), but it is about the only ungainly thing about her.

Her cherubic face and unaffected stage presence are slightly at odds with her backing band, who look more like an Oasis tribute act, but her songs are a divine slice of electro-R'n'B.

The 22-year-old singer has been working with Joseph Mount, of Metronomy fame, and his production work is subtly apparent in songs such as On My Own Againand I'm Not Sorry, powerfully reminiscent of Kylie's catchiest moments, or Kate Bush in her 1980s pomp.

Coming after a terrific performance by Robotnik, the whole evening was a fine example of the trend for mining the best of 80s pop, with a laptop-pop veneer - somehow, the decade that taste never knew has become chic instead of embarrassing. Robotnik's frenetic main man, Chris Morrin, gave a thoroughly convincing Devo-esque performance, his sound mixing two parts David Byrne to one part Depeche Mode.

With a shiny labcoat and thick specs, Morrin's shtick ought to be tiresome, but his manic enthusiasm gives the cynics no chance — during Puddlestarter, he raced through the venue liberally dousing the crowd with a water blaster, and he managed to make it funny rather than irritating. The debut Robotnik album, Pleasant Square, might lack the theatrics, but it's a welcome piece of work from a promising Irish talent. On this evidence, his set at the Body and Soul area at next weekend's Electric Picnic will be an afternoon delight to savour.

Blay's set was considerably shorter than Morrin's, the price of catching artists in the embryonic stages of their career, and she is as yet unsigned, but pretty soon, Blay will be keeping company with the likes of MIA and Santogold. Thecocknbullkid might not roll off the tongue, but you better get used to saying it. - DAVIN O'DWYER

Further than the Furthest Thing

Project Upstairs, Dublin

WHEN THE creative spark ignites the tinder of factual event, the result can be a dramatic explosion, and Zinnie Harris's play is nothing less. Its background is the evacuation in 1960 of the population of the tiny, remote island of Tristan da Cunha because of the threat to its inhabitants from a volcano. The author zooms in on a single family, and reveals a world of extraordinary passions and climactic events.

The play opens on the island as Francis returns from an outer-world adventure with businessman Hansen in tow. Hansen wants to build a seafood factory on the island, and seeds of discord are sown. Tensions mount. The islanders are all moved to England, to work in one of Hanson's factories, and their problems in adapting to city life are persuasively depicted. Their longing to return to the island intensifies, and the pressure brings to the surface hidden secrets from a savage past. The play holds the attention like a vice.

But there is more. The play is a revelation of human emotions under stress, a microcosmic world of feeling. Its characters are drawn in depth, with island matriarch Mill dominating the flow of events in an altogether brilliant performance by Fiona Bell. Enda Oates as Bill, Michael Fitzgerald as Francis, Peter Gaynor as Hansen and Judith Roddy as Rebecca are all irresistibly in tune. Anabelle Comyn's direction is impeccable.

This hypnotic play should be labelled unmissable. - GERRY COLGAN

Runs to September 6th