The revelation in this newspaper on Saturday that Sile de Valera, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, supports the idea of relocating the National Concert Hall to Infirmary Road, next to the Phoenix Park, has come as a surprise, not least to those at the hall, writes Michael Dervan. The existence of the proposal seems to have been unknown at the NCH, even to members of the board, whose attention had been focused on developing within the Earlsfort Terrace site.
The inadequacies of the NCH are so many and have been known about for so long that the idea of moving to a new site with two auditoriums is likely to receive a warm welcome. Whether that welcome will extend to the Infirmary Road location remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the NCH is still locked in a stand-off with RTE, its tenant, about the details of a new rental agreement. And RTE has become so concerned about the health-and-safety implications of air-quality problems on the stage of the NCH that it is looking for an alternative rehearsal space for the National Symphony Orchestra, which it runs.
Changes made earlier in the year to guarantee oxygen dispersal on stage have, some musicians claim, made the situation worse. A spokesperson for the NCH refused to comment on the improvements to the ventilation system, saying "it has not yet been fully tested, and monitoring is not completed yet".
The printmaker Sara Horgan is representing Ireland at a festival of art and music in Sweden this month. One of 10 artists invited from 10 European countries, including Antonio Tapies, Pierre Alechinsky and John Cage, she is exhibiting her work at Galleri Astley, a capacious venue in a former railway station, within its own sculpture park set in a lakeside forest in central Sweden. The show coincides with the gallery's 20th electronic-music festival.
Two Irish dance companies are also enjoying their moments in the sun: at the Festival de la Nouvelle Danse in Uzes, near the southern French city of Nimes, Michael Keegan-Dolan's company, Fabulous Beast, performed his allegorical piece Fragile on Tuesday. With its fallen angels and lost souls, the work was first seen at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 1999 and is being revived next week at Project Arts Centre in Dublin.
Last week in Uzes, Liz Roche's Rex Levitates company performed Trip Town, her solo show accompanied by a Mozart soundtrack, which explores the artist's search for religious faith. The company will perform Over The Rainbow, Roche's new piece, in the window of the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar, Dublin, next week.
William Eddins, resident conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in January, will become the NSO's next principal conductor, in September 2002.
Eddins, whose initial contract is for three years, has worked with leading US orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony, and has forthcoming engagements with the New York Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra. This engagement will see him work with the NSO for four weeks each season.
RTE has also appointed David Brophy assistant conductor with the NSO. He will "assist the various conductors, as well as the principal; he will rehearse the orchestra on an as-needed basis; and he will, in time, record programmes for radio and television". He will also conduct two summer concerts, one a full evening programme.
Brophy, who made his debut with the NSO last July, is conducting Co-Opera's tour of Madama Butterfly, is musical director of the Ulysses Choir and has conducted the Crash Ensemble. He will conduct an RTE Concert Orchestra lunchtime programme at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on Tuesday August 14th and is scheduled to conduct a tour of the National Chamber Choir (of which he was, for a period, apprentice conductor) in February.
The NSO now has serious commitments to four conductors: 16 weeks a year to principal conductor Gerhard Markson and six concerts a year to conductor emeritus Alexander Anissimov, as well as the commitments to Eddins and Brophy. Unless there's a radical change in work patterns, the NSO's rather low level of concert giving - under 60 last year, compared with around 120 for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra or 130 for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam - will place a severe limit on the opportunities to explore new conducting talent.
John Hutchinson, the director of the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin, points out that several artists recently associated with the gallery have been doing rather well internationally. The Hyde has, in other words, been backing winners. Gregor Schneider, of the creepy house, heard he was to represent Germany at the Venice Biennale when he was showing at the Douglas Hyde. He went on to scoop the main award at Venice. The Belgian Luc Tuymans won a commendation for his Venice show in the Belgian pavilion. And Mike Nelson and Richard Billingham are on the shortlist for this year's Turner Prize.
Listings from some 500 arts organisations on both sides of the Border, plus news, reviews, book publication details, can be accessed at www.art.ie, a new all-Ireland arts and entertainment website launched by Minister Sile de Valera on Friday. It was established by the arts councils of the Republic and Northern Ireland, the latter of which maintains it. And if you don't think it's any good, you can let them know online, in the feedback section.
frontrow@irish-times.ie
