More Hugh Lane

Some more great free music at the Hugh Lane Gallery, with an extra treat for the next 3 Saturdays (1.05pm) when the 3 Irish pianists selected to participate in the 2012 Dublin International Piano Competition (which runs from May 4-15) showcase their programmes. On Sat 31 you can hear Ben Shaffrey play Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt; on Sat 7 April Nadene Fiorentini plays Berg, Ravel, Granados and Chopin; and on Sat 14 Marie Carroll plays Ravel, Messiaen and Chopin. Meanwhile back in the Sundays @ Noon slot Duos for Harp and Cello sees NSO veterans Andreja Malir and Martin Johnson team up for works by Ravi Shankar, Jane O’Leary and Tedeschi, while on Sun 8 pianist Peter Tuite continues his joint survey of the Complete Haydn Piano Sonatas. A concert featuring contemporary composers Jennifer Walshe and Alessandro Bosetti on Sun 15 promises to be something quite different: ‘both local artists and composers that have been exploring the uncharted territory between music, speech and noise in a variety of forms ranging from experimental radio play, opera, instrumental music and performance, making use of an extremely broad palette of unconventional sounds. Alessandro Bosetti's approach is close to sound anthropology and incorporates social, behavioral and sociological aspects while in Jennifer Walshe's work a big role is played by text, narratives and mischievous humor.' And on Sun 22 Paul Hillier conducts the National Chamber Choir in An Irish Colloquy, including Tarik O’Regan’s The Spring, Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry, Nicholas Maw’s Five Irish Songs, excerpts from Piers Hellawell’s Isabella’s Banquet and works by Enda Bates, David Fennessy and Frank Corcoran.www.hughlane.ie

Sacred Symphonies

Renowned choir Resurgam are presenting a mini festival celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Sacred Synphonies explores different aspects and periods of his work in a ‘surround-sound’ format in the spectacular circular space of City Hall, and the choir will be joined by string players from the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the sackbuts and cornetts of the period wind ensemble QuintEssential, and Malcolm Proud on organ. The first concert on Sun 4 Feb focuses on Gabrieli’s early vocal style; Sun 11 includes music from the 1597 Symphoniae Sacrae, with 8 voices and 4 each of string and brass; while the whole shebang comes together on Sun 18 for large-scale works from the Symphoniae Sacrae liber secundus of 1615 and the 33 part Magnificat. www.resurgam.ie

Concorde & Ulysses

Concorde contemporary music ensemble celebrate their 35th birthday with Up Close with Music, a series of six free afternoon concerts in gallery spaces including the Rubicon Gallery, the Contemporary Music Centre and the Gallery of Photography. Each concert will feature a commissioned composer with a new work, as well as highlighting their extensive repertoire and new compositions from both Irish and international composers, including Stephen Gardner, Grainne Mulvey, Judith Ring, Ed Bennett, Korean composer Si-Hyun Yi and Slovenian composer Nina Senk. The series will pay tribute to the late James Wilson and will also focus on the music of Elliot Carter. The first two concerts are at the Rubicon Gallery on Sun 13 and Sun 27 Nov, featuring commissioned works from Dave Flynn and Rhona Clarke respectively. www.rubicongallery.ie

For more free music, head up to the Dublin Unitarian Church on Stephens Green at 3pm on Sun 13 for the final concert in their Organ Restoration Fund series. Fergal Caulfield conducts the Ulysses Chamber Choir in a programme of Hungarian-themed music including Brahms’ Ziegunerlieder and Listz’s Missa Choralis. There will be a post-concert bucket collection towards the cost of restoring the beautiful JW Walker Organ, built 100 years ago this year. www.dublinunitarianchurch.org

Short & Sweet

Over the past while I’ve come to realise that despite my best intentions, life has a habit of intervening in my blogging schedule, so for the next few months I’m going to keep things short and sweet – basic info and a link. But remember, if it’s on the blog it’s worth checking out.So here goes:

Sundays@ Noon at the Hugh Lane Gallery is a definite must for any city dweller. Free music in a fab gallery, what more could you want? On Sun 19 you can hear pianist Finghin Collins, currently associate artist with the NSO, playing Beethoven and Debussy, and on Sun 26 contemporary music group Concorde team up with acclaimed violist Garth Knox for The Viola: A Wild Beast Unleashed, 5 new compositions by Irish composers inspired by the afore-mentioned Knox. www.hughlane.ie

And in the same venue for a small fee, on Sat 18 @3pm you can here the National Chamber Choir under the baton of the brilliant Paul Hillier singing music by Brahms and his early music influences including the likes of Gabrieli and Palestrina. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

A new cross-arts project Movement of Sound is at the Backloft on June 19, a collaboration between Karen Power (composer / live electronics), Mary Nunan (dancer and choreographer), Deirdre O’Leary (clarinet/ bass clarinet) and Kate Ellis (cello), featuring Irish premiers by international composers; Saariaho, Tiensuu and Hyla. And speaking of the Backloft, there’s a free concert on Fri 10 @7pm featuring RawClassico aka soprano Frances Marshall and classical guitarist John Feeley, a combination of Italian arias and Celtic repertoire, all arranged by Feeley.

www.thebackloft.blogspot.com

Some good stuff coming up at Art Polonia’s Centre for Creative Practice, where you can indulge in everything from jazz, flamenco, electro-acoustic, experimental music performance, folk music, storytelling, documentaries and a German movie night. Check out their website @ www.artpolonia.org

Popular French-based pianist Ivan Ilic is back again at the NCH’s John Field Room for a lunchtime recital on Fri 24 June, including his own arrangements of French songs by Debussy, Fauré, and Ernest Chausson, as well as two rarely-heard works from 1930 by Ravel and Godowsky. www.nch.ie

Next show into the Gate Theatre is Brian Friel’s thought-provoking exploration of personal identity Molly Sweeney, which had its premiere there some 15 years ago. Previewing from Thur 23 and opening on Tue 28 June, this new production is directed by Patrick Mason and features Dawn Bradfield, Michael Byrne and Peter Hanly. www.gatetheatre.ie

At Project til Sat 18 June, Loose Canon return to their Shakespearian roots with their take on A Midsummer Night's Dream? (note that question mark). As they so eloquently put it, “Is it about fairies and pixies and the course of true love not running smoothly? Or is it about getting f*cked off your face – so f*cked off your face that you end up f*cking a donkey?” Sounds like some party. www.projectartscentre.ie

Music update

Oh My God it’s only two weeks to Christmas, how did that happen? The snow put a halt to everyone’s gallop, but time to get back into the spirit of things. The Christmas concert from Gloria, Dublin’s gay and lesbian choir (now 15 years old), has proved so popular over the last few years that they’ve moved to a much bigger venue, the soaring heights of St Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s on Thur 16 @8pm, admission is free, donations on the night to the Choir and GCN Forever. www.gloria.ie Also at St Patrick’s, the beautiful and very popular Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols takes place on Sun 19 @3.15pm. Get there early to get a seat.

There’s two lots of Christmas Tidings from the excellent National Chamber Choir, in Monkstown Church of Ireland on Wed 22 (8pm) and the Hugh Lane Gallery on Thur 23 (3pm). David Brophy conducts a nice mix of well-known Christmas favourites and more unusual pieces, including Benjamin Britten's Christ's Nativity, Taverner's Ikon of the Nativity, Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel and Mel Torme's The Christmas Song. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

Let It Snow

Oh the weather outside is delightful, but there’s a limit to the number of snowmen you can make and all that sloshing around is a bit hard on the feet. So check out a bit of culture instead – there’s more to December than pantos and Christmas carols. A couple more concerts in the Hugh Lane Sundays @Noon series before they close up shop for the hols: on Sun 5 Dublin based Russian-German pianist Elisaveta Blumina is joined by the Staatskapelle Berlin Woodwind Quintet for a lovely programme of Anton Reicha, Jean Francaix, Piazzolla, and Poulenc’s Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. On Sun 12 the Riverrun Piano Quartet continue their Brahms’ series with the Piano Quartet in C minor, along with works for viola and piano by Schumann and Joseph Joachim. And remember it’s all free. www.hughlane.ie

Ok, so you can’t avoid a bit of seasonal caroling, but head off the beaten track a bit and you might find some real treats. Fingal Chamber Choir give their Christmas concert on Sun 12 (4pm) in one of Dublin’s hidden gems, the Church of St John the Baptist in Drumcondra, a fascinating slice of historic rural Ireland plonked in the middle of suburbia.

Two lunchtime concerts from the NSO at the NCH: On Tue 14 the RTE Philharmonic Choir lend their considerable voices to seasonal favourites such as Stille Nacht and Veni, veni Emmanuel alongside Corelli’s Christmas Concerto; on Fri 17 the contribution from the youthful Cor na nOg includes Reger’s The Virgin’s Slumber Song, while the orchestra indulge in some Nutcracker excerpts www.rte.ie

At the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room, a Christmas series with a difference: Soilse na Nollaig brings together some of the leading lights of the traditional Irish music scene including the likes of singers Moya Brennan, Karan Casey, Maighread & Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Meav and Iarla O Lionaird, and virtuoso musicians Cormac de Barra (harp), Máire Breatnach (fiddle), Steve Cooney (guitar), Niall Vallely (concertina) and Caomhin Vallely (piano). Concerts are at lunchtime and teatime and run from Wed 15 to Tue 23. www.nch.ie

The Contemporary Music Centre are getting into the Christmas spirit with Winter Variations, two free concerts on Dec 15 from newly formed ensemble SoundSet. Featuring contemporary Christmas carols, including new works written specifically for the occasion by Irish composers Anne Marie O’Farrell, Jane O’Leary and Nick Roth, there’s also an international carol by Pawel Lukaszewski of Poland and works by Stephen Gardner, Piers Hellawell and Solfa Carlile. www.cmc.ie

Irish Chamber Choir of Paris

A little bit of cross-cultural pollination takes place on Thur 28 Oct when the Irish Chamber Choir of Paris (the choir of the Centre Culturel Irelandais) give a free concert at the Unitarian Church, a timely volcanic ash rescheduling from last April - remember when that was the only thing we had to worry about. This is the first visit to Dublin of this all-female choir (they’re also heading to Galway), and they’ll be singing Pietro Paolo Bencini’s Missa de Oliveria and motets by Henry Madin, whose family left Ireland with the Wild Geese and who was born in Verdun in 1698. www.centreculturelirlandais.com

Arvo Part

Fergus Sheil conducts the State Choir Latvija in a 4 concert tour, including St Ann’s Dawson Street on Thur 14, in celebration of the 75th birthday of the great Latvian composer Arvo Part. This retrospective of the composer’s choral music spans three decades of work that forms the spiritual core of his output, featuring iconic pieces such as Summa, the deeply reverential Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen and the ethereal Magnificat (1989). A highlight of the programme will be The Deer’s Cry, a setting of St Patrick’s Breastplate described by Part as his ‘gift to Irish audiences’, which was premiered by the State Choir Latvija in Drogheda in 2008. Also on the programme are three spiritual works by Irish composers: Deirdre McKay’s Plunkett’s Last Words, Rhona Clarke’s Two Marian Anthems and Mícheal O Suilleabhain’s Maranatha, an exuberant setting of the ancient ‘O Antiphons’ which also features in Part’s Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen. Tickets from www.tickets.ie

National Chamber Choir

The National Chamber Choir give the world premiere of a new work by renowned South African-born Irish composer Kevin Volans in the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle on Thur 22. Canciones del Alma – Songs for the Soul – was commissioned by Elizabeth Chatwin, widow of the celebrated British author Bruce Chatwin (whose brilliant The Songlines I’ve just finished re-reading) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death. It will be performed alongside renaissance masterpieces from Spain, Portugal and Italy, including Monteverdi’s Magnificat, in a programme conducted by Paul Hillier and appropriately entitled Walking Home. And if you’re lucky enough to be in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo on Fri 23, the same concert will be repeated FREE (but ticketed - 094 9024444). www.nationalchamberchoir.com

More June

The RTE National Symphony Orchestra may have finished their subscription season but they haven’t quite gone on their hols yet. Instead they’re doing a series of Musical Postcards at the NCH Tue lunchtime and Fri evenings (start time 7.30pm). Among the more interesting are a taste of Bohemia on Fri 25 with Smetana’s Vlatava and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto; Copland and Gershwin on Fri 2 July including Gershwin’s Piano Concerto; Grieg’s Norwegian and Symphonic Dances on Tue 6; Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 on Fri 16; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute & Harp and Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 on Fri 23; and choral group Anuna with music from the 15th to the 21st century on Fri 30. www.rte.ie www.nch.ie

There’s French music from the National Chamber Choir at Smock Alley’s Banquet Hall on Sun 27 June – or if you want to travel further afield, in Navan on Fri 25 and Carlingford on Sat 26. Conducted by the choir’s Artistic Director Paul Hillier, who was founding director of the famous Hilliard Ensemble, the programme revolves around love, birds and war, with a cappella songs by Janequin, Poulenc and Debussy. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

An interesting programme from the Irish Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral on Sat 26 June pits the young Mozart against the more mature Haydn. Young Progidy / Old Master features Mozart’s Gallimathius Musicum, written when he was just ten, and his slightly later Bassoon Concerto (with IBO and Scottish Chamber Orchestra principal Peter Whelan), along with Haydn’s Symphony No 60, written when Haydn was in his 40s. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Tall Tales are at Project from June 29 (preview) with the world premiere of BogBoy, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan that echoes with the fate of the ‘disappeared’ from 1970s Northern Ireland. Set in contemporary Co. Meath, it interweaves the stories of three people who themselves have disappeared through the cracks of Irish society - a young boy from Belfast, a struggling Dublin heroin addict and a reclusive local farmer. Shifting timelines reveal deep friendship, violent murder and unforgivable deceit, as well as a ‘gloriously comic’ clash of contemporary Irish rural/urban culture. Jo Mangan (of The Performance Corporation) directs and the cast includes Steve Blount, Damian Devaney, Emmett Kirwan and Mary Murray. www.projectartscentre.ie

Pipeworks & Resurgam

There’s organ music to beat the band on Sat 5 June when Pipeworks present a one day Organ Marathon at Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals as a fundraiser for next year’s festival. Later in the day (6.30pm) Pipeworks team up with Resurgam choir at St Patrick’s for a concert of music written for Corpus Christi spanning the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries. Motets by Byrd and Tallis contrast with the exuberance of Victoria, then later works by Fauré, Roger-Ducasse and Messiaen, and finally Gerald Finzi’s 1946 anthem Lo the Full Final Sacrifice for organ and choir. Soloists are harpist Fiona Arnold and organist David Leigh. www.pipeworksfestival.com