Gareth Davis is a virtuoso bass clarinettist with a special interest in new music.
He was the guest of contemporary music ensemble Concorde under their director Jane O'Leary at the concert in the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre (temporary home to the Hugh Lane Gallery's Sunday at Noon series this month).
His two solo works on the programme - Solitude by Japan's Joji Yuasa, and Let me die before I wake . . . by Salvatore Sciarrino from Sicily - were of a kind: reflectively tranquil, intensely quiet. Much of the lyrical material resides in a very high register, far from the deep domain normally associated with the bass clarinet, with Davis drawing pure, sweet notes and often blurring the boundary of audibility.
In contrast, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg's Ablauf (meaning "discharge") afforded Davis the opportunity for an explosion of energy which ranged from angry, low-register growling to frantic, leaping lines at the upper end. The activity was punctuated by sharp reports on drums and with unintelligible shouts from Davis.
The full, enigmatic title of Ailís Ní Ríain's new work for bass clarinet and accordion is FIRST ABSOLUTE EXECUTION (couldn't call it unexpected). It is in five miniature, quirkily subtitled movements and represents a "loose reflection on the world around us". Anger and calm alternate in the first three movements leading to the emotional core in the fourth, Ni Riain's short poem I just stand which was recited by Davis over long chords on the accordion. Thought-provoking and delicately crafted - anger notwithstanding - the piece ends with a short, jaunty epilogue.
The concert's lone work without bass clarinet was Malgré la nuit seule . . . by German composer Konrad Boehmer. It presented violin, clarinet and accordion in similar sonorities, like the voices of sisters in conversation. The instruments provided a busy backdrop to the more leisurely line sung by soprano Tine Verbeke. It was a pity Concorde again elected not to provide a printed text and translation.
