Four Romantic Pieces, Op 75 - Dvorak
Sonata No 1 in G, Op 78 - Brahms
Waterscape (1994) - Marion Ingoldsby
Sonata No 1 - Schnittke
Hungarian Dances - Brahms, arr. Joachim
With Priya Mitchell, the music seems to come not from the instrument but from some inner source, so that the familiar notes of Brahms's Sonata No 1, while remaining faithful to the score, are transformed into a new autonomous being. Forget the academic structures, this music speaks a new but comprehensible language; not heard before, but transparent.
Even more remarkable was the insight shown in the selection of Brahms's Hungarian Dances. A genuine gipsy fire was there, but also a profound sense that under all the excitement lay a creative stillness.
As this recital was part of a tour arranged by Music Network/ESB, Priya Mitchell and her sympathetic and supportive accompanist, Robert Kulek, had been heard in Cahir, New Ross, Tralee and Kilkenny before coming to the Coach House on Wednesday. Their next stop is Portstewart. I think all the audiences will realise they have heard a violinist of peculiar excellence.
The Four Romantic Pieces by Dvorak were played with a rich, caressing tone, but did not lack energy when required. If not as revelatory as the Brahms, that is because there was less to reveal. Marion Ingoldsby's Waterscape, inspired by the Mahon Falls in the Comeraghs, was pleasantly pictorial without being especially memorable.
To Schnittke's Sonata No 1, Priya Mitchell brought both graciousness and fury, but I felt that Robert Kulek got closer to the heart of this strange work that veers from reverence to iconoclasm. The percussive power of the piano expresses Schnittke's vision here more aptly than the smoother lines of the violin.
