(first performance) .................. Philip Martin................................. Schumann acquired by pieces of music do not always match particular performances, so great is the variety of individual interpretations. Anthony Byrne (piano) made a convincing case for renaming the Pathetique Sonata Tragica or Sonata Erotica in his midday recital at the Hugh Lane Gallery on Sunday.occasion.
Philip Martin's new work, Soundings, has as inspiration seven pieces from the Hugh Lane Gallery's collection, by Tony O'Malley, Harry Kernoff, Felim Egan, Kathy Prendergast, Anne Madden, James Scanlon and Mainie Jellett. The quirky character of the music was flexible enough to enable the listener to establish connections with the moods of the different pictures; Egan's cool abstraction led to sharp little figurations which developed into a dance; Jellett's crucifixion scene was expressed in solemn chords and dense harmonies. In general the seven pieces were quite playful, not least in their avoidance of any restful cadences.
In the hall of the Gallery was a carousel with animals to ride on and flashing lights and canned music an appropriate introduction to a performance of Schumann's Carnaval which emphasised the fairground elements of the work at the expense of the subtler feelings. There were moments of delicate playing but not enough to avert a sense of fatigue, as after a day spent at the fair.
