Springing into festival action

REVIEWS:  Reviews by Douglas Sealy and Ray Comiskey

ESB Vogler Spring Festival 2002

St Columba, Drumcliffe,

Co Sligo,

Douglas Sealy

May bank-holiday weekend saw some of the most halcyon weather ever to strike the western shore and a generously inclusive series of eight concerts built around the talents of the Vogler String Quartet and the Vienna Piano Trio. The little church of St Columba in Drumcliffe, Co Sligo, has seating for around 170 people and the acoustic is quite resonant so there is not only the intimacy proper to chamber music but an uncommon richness of sound. One might be in a composer's brainpan with the music coming from every corner of the cranial walls.

The first work in the first concert was Debussy's String Quartet in G minor (1893). This was not the Debussy of the evanescent veils of sonic wizardry but a young man's sturdy declaration of independence presented with the same dynamism that marked all the performances during the weekend. The Voglers had discovered a spirit present in the music but often brought to the fore. Even more dramatic was their reading next day of Janacek's Quartet No 2, Intimate Letters, (1928). The rapid transitions of mood were forcefully expressed. Moving further into the 20th century, there were equally passionate performances of K.A. Hartmann's Quartet No 1 (1933-35) and Wolfgang Rihm's Quartet No. 2 (1970), this last replacing an unavoidably postponed new work by Stephen Gardner.

The Vienna Trio's contribution was a little further back in time, with piano trios by Schubert and Haydn. These players share the whole-hearted involvement of the Voglers so the Schubert Trio in E flat (1827) and the Haydn Trio in E flat minor (1795), for all their comparative restraint, were as excitingly alive and compelling as the more recent works.

Of course the Vienna is not limited to works of earlier vintage; joined by the clarinettist Jörg Widmann they gave a heart-stopping performance of Messiaen's Quatour pour le fin du temps. The acoustic was particularly favourable not only to the Dance of Fury for the seven trumpets but also to the Abyss of the birds for clarinet solo in which the most piercing bird-call diminishing to the merest wisp of sound could be heard without ear strain in either direction.

One of the pleasures of the festival was the way in which the various players regrouped. Stephan Fehlandt, violo player of the Vogler Quartet, joined the Vienna Trio for an extraordinarily lively performance of Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor. Stefan Mendl, pianist of the Vienna, was joined by Bruno Schneider (french horn) and Catherine Leonard (violin) for a colourful reading of Brahms's Horn Trio. Jörg Widmann joined the Vogler in a happily restrained journey through Mozart's Clarinet Quintet. These settings of Alexander Blok's darkly symbolist poems communicated vividly in Pescová's plangent yet seductive interpretation.

Pescová, accompanied by the Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov, also sang five songs by R. Strauss, somewhat too operatically for my liking and gave a wonderfully sympathetic and unemphatic presentation of Berg's Four Songs Op 2. Here she seemed to get right to the heart of the composer's intentions.

Melnikov is a pianist with a temperament which demands expression. In Beethoven's Op. 109, there were times when there was more Melnikov than Beethoven: the selection of six of Rachmaninov's Preludes suited him better for here temperament and music seemed to coincide.

Of great interest was Gubaidulina's Dancer on a Tightrope, played by the violin and piano of the Vienna Trio. The pianist struck the strings of his instrument with what appeared to be a drinking glass, producing a medley of sounds which would arouse the envy of the electronic boys. It has not been possible to mention every work, but a coruscating performance of Schubert's Octet, in which the Vogler were joined by Jörg Widmann, Bruno Schneider, Gareth Newman (bassoon) and Ronan Dunne (double bass), was enough to justify the whole Festival. Eight minds united in a single purpose, speaking as much with as to the audience. It was a shared experience that made one resolve to go home and burn one's CDs.

John Abercrombie Quartet

Vicar Street

Ray Comiskey

It was a pleasure to go to Vicar Street on Monday and hear a jazz band with a real sense of engagement and discovery about their work. Organised by The Improvised Music Company, this was the first Dublin visit of the great guitarist, John Abercrombie.

Surrounded by three other exceptional musicians - drummer Joey Baron and, especially, bassist Marc Johnson and violinist Mark Feldman, all capable of taking risks with him - he delivered what was probably some of the best jazz heard at the venue for some time. Not all of it necessarily worked fully; the group's frequently discursive approach to form, time and metre had the ebb and flow of conversation and, like conversation, didn't always reach the heights of interchange, but when it did it was supremely satisfying - and beautiful.

The concert opened with a pair of pieces linked by a segue; an exercise in contrast and drama called A Nice Idea, with Feldman the most impressive soloist, and the aptly titled Stop and Go, like an off-centre square dance which had its moments but became too diffuse for its own good. It was already clear, nevertheless, that this was a group highly attuned to each other and what they were doing.

Also clear was the freshness of Abercrombie's playing; most musicians have a store of personal clichés that help the fingers when the mind lags, but it would be hard to detect any in the guitarist's solos. The same could be said of Feldman and Johnson.

The closer on the first set, String Thing, resolved into a three-way conversation between guitar, violin and arco bass that was stunningly beautiful.

And they maintained that level through much of the second set, notably after they had disposed of the skewed, boppish line of On The Loose and moved into freer pastures and on Spring Song, where Abercrombie's solo was one of the best of the night and both Feldman and Johnson shone again; the tune's reprise and coda, with violin and guitar picking up ideas from each other, was a delight.