The Unending Rose (2000) - Silvina Milstein

(re) Gaia (2000) - Joe Cutler

Matrix - Alwynne Pritchard

€280101E - James Saunders

Blitzed! - Frank Lyons

All the works in Sunday's recital at the Hugh Lane Gallery had been commissioned by the violinist, Darragh Morgan, and he played them, strange as they were, with all the confidence of familiarity. The Unending Rose, as its poetic title might indicate, was suffused with rich but fragile charm. In it, Silvina Milstein, in a discursive fashion, led the listener by winding paths to a place of repose.

Joe Cutler's (re) Gaia had a more primitive feel as a fragmented folk dance alternately relied on and discarded a drone. More primitive still was Matrix (for electric violin). More important than clearly pitched sounds was the friction of the bow-hair on the strings, amplified to resemble the creaks and squeaks of a badly hung door. Such sounds, Alwynne Pritchard may think, are close to the origins of music.

James Saunders, in the "short modules" of €280101E, discovered some curious and some beautiful sounds and some rather long silences in which the mute being placed on the music desk acquired an unexpected significance, and the entirely adventitious calls of the seagulls outside made a not unimportant contribution. The shortness of the various episodes suggested raw material, not a finished product.

Blitzed!, for electric violin and tape, had an equally experimental feel. The violin explored its technical range and the tape transformed the techniques into a disturbing percussion, as if poltergeists were hidden in the machine. Frank Lyons chose a good title, and Darragh Morgan met all the demands of this and other composers with skill and poise.