Classical highlights this summer
MAY
Wexford Festival Opera
May 31-June 17
Wexford town and Johnstown Castle, 053-9122144
www.wexfordopera.com
It's all change at the Wexford Festival. Temporary venues have had to be found to keep the show on the road while the festival's new home is being built on the site of the old Theatre Royal. A new "temporary theatre" is being erected in the spectacular setting of the grounds of Johnstown Castle. There's also a branching-out of repertoire, to take in a play with music (Kurt Weill's Silverlake), a ballet with singers (Stravinsky's Pulcinella) and an opera with a title role that's a speaking part (Busoni's Arlecchino), as well as the most popular of Dvorák's operas, the water-nymph fairy-tale, Rusalka. The Dún Mhuire theatre is being used again, for small-scale daytime performances of Peter Brook's adaptation of Bizet's La Tragédie de Carmen, and one-acters by Poulenc (La Voix Humaine) and Donizetti (Rita). The Prague Chamber Choir returns as the festival chorus, and the closing large-scale choral work this year is Haydn's Creation.
JUNE
IIB Bank Music in Great Irish Houses
June 8-15
Various venues, 01-6642822
www.musicgreatirishhouses.com
The festival's new artistic director, Ciara Higgins, presents her first programme this year - adding a short festival within a festival with a series of concerts at the National Gallery in Dublin. The mini-festival brings a Dublin debut for the Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov (now famous for partnering Sting on his recorded venture into the world of John Dowland), appearances by percussionist Colin Currie, and two unusual pairings, of Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and Irish accordionist Dermot Dunne, and Irish flautist Emer McDonough and Chinese guitarist Xufei Yang. Also in the line-up are Barry Douglas's Camerata Ireland with trumpeter Alison Balsam, the Pavel Haas String Quartet, and the Navarra String Quartet (the latter playing at the Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast). The Anne-Sophie Mutter protege Arabella Steinbacher plays violin sonatas by Grieg, Brahms, Ravel and Fauré with pianist Robert Kulek, tenor Robin Tritschler's evening programme with Xufei Yang includes Benjamin Britten's Songs from the Chinese, and Carol McGonnell (clarinet), Guy Johnston (cello), and Finghin Collins (piano) explore various combinations of their three instruments.
West Cork Chamber Music Festival
June 30-July 8
Bantry House, Bantry, 1850 788789,
www.westcorkmusic.ie
A number of musicians from the ambit of the late, great, Ukrainian pianist Sviatoslav Richter feature at the West Cork Chamber Music. Elisabeth Leonskaja performed two-piano repertoire with him, and Mikhail Kopelman led the Borodin Quartet, who were regular collaborators. Leonskaja can be heard in Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. She teams up with the Kopelman Quartet for Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, and the Kopelmans can also be heard in Shostakovich's Third and Eighth Quartets.
Other musicians making festival debuts include sopranos Mary Hegarty and Lenneke Ruiten, clarinettist Sharon Kam, violinist Isabelle Faust, pianists Polina Leschenko and Alexander Melnikov, Cuarteto Casals, Quatuor Terpsycordes and the Haffner Wind Ensemble. Among those returning are Russian mezzo Lyudmila Shkertil (who made a huge impression last year) and her pianist Yuri Serov, baritone Christian Gerhaher with Gerold Huber, violinist Catherine Leonard, and pianist Finghin Collins. The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet offer rarities in the opening and closing concerts, the String Quartet by John Corigliano and the almost larger-than-life 1911 Piano Quintet of Sergey Taneyev, for which they are joined by Igor Uriash.
JULY
MBNA Shannon International Music Festival
Wed, July 11-Sun, July 15,
Limerick, 1890 923543,
www.icorch.com
Sinéad O'Connor is the star turn at the opening of the festival, joining the Irish Chamber Orchestra under Anthony Marwood for arrangements (by Orlando Jopling) from her Theology album. This unusual collaboration will be preceded by John Tavener's biggest hit, The Protecting Veil, with Louise Hopkins as the cello soloist. At the other end of the festival the orchestra is joined by the National Chamber Choir for a performance of the Mozart Requiem, with Douglas Boyd conducting. In between there's A Night at the Opera, a first festival appearance by the young American clarinettist Johnny Teyssier, and a new work by Frank Corcoran, Quasi una fuga, juxtaposed with Beethoven's Grosse Fuge.
AUGUST
Kilkenny Arts Festival
Aug 10-19
Kilkenny, 056-7752175,
www.kilkennyarts.ie
Violinist Catherine Leonard is the curator for this year's classical music programme at Kilkenny Arts Festival. Cellist Ani Aznavoorian (above) will play the Dvorák Cello Concerto with the Ulster Orchestra (making a welcome return to the festival after an 18-year gap), and viola player Jennifer Stumm appears with Leonard, Aznavoorian and others in a number of chamber music programmes. Soprano Ailish Tynan returns for a recital of Brahms, Mozart, Fauré and Debussy with Julius Drake, and oboist Nicholas Daniel will be heard in Bliss's Oboe Quintet and Mozart's Oboe Quartet. Guest ensembles include the Carducci String Quartet, and the French early music group, Ensemble Wanda Landowska.
Compiled by Michael Dervan
