Artistic Director Introduction
Last year was a very special one for the KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival. It reached the “grand old age” of 40, spread its wings further afield to the Centre Culturel Irlandais and Ambassade d’Irlande in Paris, and welcomed the three previous artistic directors to the traditional final night in the festival birthplace, Castletown House. If life begins at 40, we are certainly enjoying a great new “beginning”!
This year’s Festival is a season of firsts – venues, appearances and repeats of festival favourites.
La Serenissima, the award-winning period ensemble and champions of the music of Antonio Vivaldi, makes its Festival début in the magnificent setting of Christ Church Cathedral. In addition to Vivaldi’s much-loved “Four Seasons” masterpiece, Festival audiences can also look forward to the Irish première of the composer’s recently rediscovered “Grand Mogul” concerto with flautist Katy Bircher (June 17th). La Serenissima members Adrian Chandler, Gareth Deats and James Johnstone can be heard again in the Festival’s first morning concert in the serene setting of the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin (June 18th). Their programme includes two more unearthed Vivaldi scores alongside works by Vivaldi contemporaries Albinoni and Pisadel.
In 2010, the charismatic Quatuor Ebène helped celebrate our 40th in style! Their freshness and joie de vivre is palpable in both classical and popular/jazz repertoire. Their return will dazzle and intoxicate Irish audiences with breath-taking performances in two venues, Castletown House and Dublin’s Sugar Club (June 18th and 19th).
I am delighted to welcome back the passionate and virtuosic Pavel Haas Quartet for two concerts (June 15th and 16th). Since making their Irish début at the 2007 Festival, this Czech ensemble has gone on to cement their place in the first league of string quartets. In addition to works by Schubert, Beethoven, Britten and their compatriot Janácvek, these exhilarating musicians will collaborate with the brilliant young German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka in a performance of Schubert’s sublime Quintet in Dublin’s Freemasons’ Hall.
We are honoured to return to the Residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hillsborough Castle for the first time in over 10 years (June 14th). The hugely talented cellist Guy Johnston, a firm favourite of Irish audiences, is partnered on this occasion by the distinguished English pianist Kathryn Stott, for a programme of some of the “greats” in the chamber music repertoire, including sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms. Another must for chamber music aficionados is the first Killruddery House concert (June 13th) with pianist Lance Coburn, violinist Michael d’Arcy and cellist Hannah Roberts collaborating in piano trios by Schubert, Beethoven and Smetana.
The haunting sounds of Terezín, a concentration camp north of Prague that served as a backdrop for a Nazi propaganda campaign during WWII, will echo in the Baroque Chapel of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham (June 12th). The music, composed and performed in Terezín, is recalled by an ensemble of Irish musical ambassadors – Dearbhla Collins, Dermot Dunne, Katherine Hunka and Lynda Lee. Joined by celebrated Irish actor Barry McGovern, the ensemble will evoke the hope and power that music brought to a place and time of despair.
41 years on we can look forward, celebrate, reflect and maybe dance with the wonderful musicians who make up the 2011 KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival!
CIARA HIGGINS, Artistic Director