DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
RDS, Dublin Today-Mon/ Wed/Thurs; NCH, Dublin Sat 12th/Sun 13th/Tues 15th
ALEXEJ GORLATCH (PIANO), ELIZABETH WATTS (SOPRANO), RTÉ NSO/ PATRIK RINGBORG
NCH, Dublin Tonight 8pm €10-€35 01-4170000
MUSIC IN DRUMCLIFFE
St Columba’s Church, Drumcliffe, Co Sligo Sat-Mon 01-5059582
Things are a bit different at this year’s Dublin International Piano Competition. There’s no title sponsor. Only one type of piano will be used. Kawai and Yamaha have deserted the scene and left Steinway with the field to itself. The final round of concerto performances with the RTÉ NSO is reduced to four competitors, who will all be heard on a single night (previously six played over two successive nights). And James Cavanagh will conduct those finals for the first time.
The changes, some the effect of straitened times,haven’t deterred 55 young players from Belarus, Canada, China, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and the US from coming to Ireland in pursuit of a first prize. Ireland’s own entrants this year are Máire Carroll, Nadene Fiorentini and Benjamin Shaffrey.
As usual, competitors’ choice of repertoire is free, save in the semi-finals, when they must include one of the pieces commissioned from Irish composers Breffni O’Byrne, Martin O’Leary and Eibhlis Farrell. As usual, too, the last player to win the competition will perform with the RTÉ NSO.
Alexej Gorlatch (left) plays Prokofiev’s Third Concerto, the conductor is Patrik Ringborg, and tonight’s concert also includes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, with Elizabeth Watts as the soprano soloist.
The musicians appearing with the Vogler String Quartet at this year’s Music in Drumcliffe starting tomorrow are pianists Michael McHale, Friedemann Rieger and Doriana Tchakarova, cellists Nicolas Altstaedt and Brian O’Kane, clarinettist Moran Katz, violinist Malwina Sosnowski, and harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen. Highlights include Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet, Mozart’s G minor Piano Quartet and Elgar’s Piano Quintet. MICHAEL DERVAN
