A selection of reviews of recent events from around the country

John Dexter Harmony, Ballyshannon Choral Group, Culwick Choral Society, OSC/Colin Block

National Concert Hall

Martin Adams

The Culwick Choral Society seems never to shirk a challenge. On Saturday night at the National Concert Hall they enthusiastically took on a long and demanding programme, which included Philip Carty's The Fourth Station (from his series of 14) and Lumen Christi.

Carty uses an eclectic range of contemporary idioms and, if audience reaction is anything to go by, his music has a ready appeal. An à la carte appropriation of styles and material, including quotations from plainchant, is calculated to produce apt gesture through general association. Dissonance signifies tension, quiet consonance relaxation; and loud consonance typically accompanies praise.

Neither Beethoven's Choral Fantasia, in which Philip Carty was a rather ill-disciplined piano soloist, nor Carty's compositions can match Carmina Burana's balance of aims and methods. Love it or hate it, Orff's most famous work makes its mark.

John Dexter Harmony delivered the children's lines with remarkable tone and discipline. The main choir was expanded to over 130 voices, through the Culwick combining with the Ballyshannon Choral Group.

Combining choirs presents challenges, and on this occasion not all of them were met. Ensemble was sometimes rough, both within the choir and between the choir and a greatly expanded Orchestra of St Cecilia.

In several places there were serious wobbles of intonation.

Yet this performance had many strong points, largely because of the shaping imparted by the Culwick's conductor Colin Block, and a corresponding response from the choir and the soloists, Niamh Murray, John Scott and Frank O'Brien. Block paced things impeccably, especially in a satirical, theatrical account of the tavern scene; and he shaped each movement not by mechanistic drive, but by strong, springing accentuation. That made everything else - and there is not a lot else - seem to ride on the back of rhythm.

Amber Trio Jerusalem

Hugh Lane Gallery

Douglas Sealy

Trio .................................................................................... Bernstein

Trio No. 3..................................................................Michael Wolpe

Trio Op. 67 ................................................................. Shostakovich

Leonard Bernstein's Trio is an engaging work, even if it is aiming to be somewhat more serious than it is. The Amber Tio (violin, cello and piano) captured the seriousness without neglecting the lighter aspects of the music.

The second work in Sunday's recital in the Hugh Lane Gallery was by Michael Wolpe and was subtitled "On Israeli Songs". Three movements were played. The tunes did not sound oriental so perhaps they originated in Europe. The treatment was tasteful, varied but respectful of the material and the work provided an interlude before Shostakovich's Trio, that extraordinary outburst of feeling that almost bursts the limits of the genre. Such is its violence that it is tempting to read into it bitterness, despair, resignation, defiance, a whole gamut of emotions, and to give it a programme based on the composer's life and the history of the Soviet Union; but such conjectures would not be helpful.

The music hurls itself at you and sweeps you away; it did in this particular performance. It was as if the players had clearly discerned the composer's aims and were able to give them body in the most compelling way. The silence at the end of the performance was profound; the audience might have been momentarily stunned and have needed time to recover.

Cyclefly

Edward Power

Cyclefly have been lazily lumped with the nu-metal fraternity, dismissed as derivative also-rans treading water in the wake of Limp Bizkit and their legion of imitators. Drenched in sci-fi swagger, the lascivious second album Crave should have prompted a critical reappraisal. Unwisely, someone tapped Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington to cameo on stand-out track Karma Killer - a myopic stunt that may have doomed Cyclefly to the margins.

In concert, the Cork-based group emerged as a lusty pop-rock outfit gleefully bereft of the rancorous self pity de rigueur among nu-metal acts. Whipped to a frenzy by live-wire frontman Declan O'Shea, the quintet thrashed out an eclectic and thrilling set, fizzling with razor-edged melodies and killer hook lines.

Glam rock-flavoured recent single No Stress set the tone. Grounded in lead guitarist Ciaran O'Shea's feral fretwork, it posited a muscular conflation of grit and glitter. Cyclefly's debt to 1980s soft metal was underscored with a grandiose Cellophane and a sleazy, bass-heavy Crowns. A slowly building, feedback-showered Drive doffed cap to nu-metal stereotypes before abruptly switching direction and transmuting into a lost Psychedelic Furs classic. The heaving moshpit reserved its biggest cheer for a snarling, speeded-up Karma Killer, an eviscerating punk anthem swaddled in blinding faux-grunge riffs and tumultuous percussion work.

Older material, drawn from 1999's debut long player Generation Sap, suffered by comparison. Only a fiery Better than You and a brash Supergod rivalled the charisma and intensity of the Crave cuts.

It remains to be seen whether Cyclefly can establish an identity distinct from the rap-metal mainstream. A high profile support slot at next month's Ozzfest at Punchestown may further the cause. Let's cheer them on. Contemporary populist rock is a sickly and lethargic institution, figuratively moping in a darkened bedroom. Cyclefly hunker by the curtains, peering at the fierce sunlight beyond.

Paddy Lennon

Triskel Arts Centre, Cork

Mark Ewart

Paddy Lennon's paintings are very much about sensation, atmosphere and the effects of light within the landscape. His take on these subjects, though, is far from explicit, as his abstractions leave just traces of the sky and aquatic settings which offered the original inspiration.

The most forthright way in which Lennon reconstitutes landscape is through his use of an expressionistic or distorted palette, which also operates within the limits of monochrome. This adds a kind of surreal element to the paintings so that a veil of cirrus clouds or a burgeoning cumulous mass become suggestive of images from distant worlds. The occasionally prosaic cloud paintings can be contrasted against works which present a more definite structure, characterised by bold, linear demarcations. These offer a template on which Lennon's distinctive colours are underpinned. The suggestion is of rock pools or underwater settings as a painting such as Subsea (The Hook) which balances vivid turquoise, lilac and acerbic green against a dark background; it pitches the shimmering pigments into sharp relief.

Scale is a salient feature with a substantial contrast in dimensions ranging from four or five foot in the largest to a mere four or five inches.

Contrary to expectations, the smaller works often command as much attention as the larger. Morning Tide is a case in point, as the wonderfully discrete imagery of land and sky are unified by a breathtaking naturalistic colouring that awakens memories of sultry summer evenings.

• Runs until April 28th