A selection of reviews by Irish Times critics.
Rafael Catalá (guitar)
St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin
By Martin Adams
Sor - Fantasie elegiaque. Ferrer - Fantasía con variaciones sobre un tema de Bèriot. Tárrega - Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Brocá - El catalán. Andante en Re mayor. Crepúsculos. Parga - Del Ferrol a la Habana. Rafael Catalá - Fantasía.
Rafael Catalá is a stylish player. In this concert, given as part of Dublin Guitar Week, he showed a calm command of technical challenge; his shaping of each piece, in detail and in generalities, was driven by discriminating, purely musical taste; the various compositional styles were neatly defined.
All the works on his programme came from the 19th and 20th centuries, and from three of Spain's long and overlapping traditions of composition for guitar and keyboard - the fantasie on original or existing material, the set of variations and the character-piece.
Sometimes these categories overlap, and one of the most striking examples was Del Ferrol a la Habana, a set of Tangos in fantasie-style by Juan Parga, one of the composer-players who, in the last half of the 19th century forged strong links between art music and the popular styles that were to dominate Spanish composition in later years.
Rafael Catalá's subtle playing emphasised stylistic continuity and difference between works such as the Parga and the earlier, salon-style elegance of fantasies by Sor and Ferrer.
Immediately after the fantasie and variations by Ferrer, he played that classic of Spanish evocation, Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tárrega, who was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the stylistic synthesis created by Parga and others. With no obvious effort on Catalá's part, another window opened in our Spanish room.
The programme ended with a four-movement Fantasía by Rafael Catalá himself. It is firmly within the traditions of all the music in this concert; but it stretches the stylistic boundaries and, as one would hope from a composer who has studied with the likes of Helmut Lachennman, it is packed with compositional craft.
Herb Geller/Louis Stewart
Bank Of Ireland Arts Centre, Dublin
By Ray Comiskey
The Dublin Jazz Society's first presentation of the year brought in the veteran US west coast alto saxophonist, Herb Geller, to join guitarist Louis Stewart, with bassist Dave Fleming and drummer Myles Drennan completing the rhythm section.
Without reaching extraordinary heights, it also brought the expected pleasure of hearing two master craftsmen, with their roots in bop and mainstream jazz, burnishing a collection of standards with polished aplomb amid sympathetic support.
As well as first making his name on the west coast of the US, Geller has also spent most of his professional life in the Köln-based NDR orchestra, so he has a vast repertoire to draw on. From it he produced some delightful surprises. Singer Mel Tormé's ballad, Born To Be Blue, Handful Of Stars, unusually taken as a waltz, Stephen Sondheim's Pretty Women, from Sweeney Todd, Zoot Sims's Red Door and Lester Young's Tickle Toe are rarely played nowadays.
More's the pity. Both Pretty Women and Tickle Toe, in particular, which were played in a more relaxed second set, elicited fine playing all round. It was noticeable that, depending on the tempo, Geller's main influences became clearer; on ballads, his tone was reminiscent of Benny Carter, while the up-tempo pieces evoked Charlie Parker.
He also knows how to pace himself. It's doubtful if, the whole night, his solos extended beyond two choruses; he said what he had to say musically and got out of the way. His taste, too - like Stewart's - is impeccable, and offered some further delights with the likes of But Beautiful a tune which always seems to compel its own atmosphere, and Come Rain Or Come Shine.
As might be expected in a pick-up group, there were occasional misunderstandings - 9.20 Special, for instance, had its approximate moments - but overall this was ego-free music. The quartet adapted readily to the demands of the occasion, with Stewart being especially sensitive in supporting his celebrated colleague.
Renaissance Singers, OSC/Mallon
St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin
By Michael Dungan
Bach - Cantatas 44, 131, 150
Two of the three cantatas in the Orchestra of Saint Cecilia's ongoing multi-year cycle are very early, probably dating back to when Bach was in his early 20s.
Indeed, the Harvard Bach scholar Christoph Wolff reckons Cantata No. 150 to be the composer's very first. It shares with No. 131 - dated August 1707 - various features typical of the late 17th century. Most striking are the sudden shifts of tempo and mood occurring within movements.
Delivering these abrupt changes with plenty of punch was Belfast-born conductor Kevin Mallon. In the opening chorus of No. 131, for instance, the slow lamenting of "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" leapt suddenly and with urgency into the insistent pleading of "hear my voice".
Mallon, a violinist with leading period ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants and Toronto's Tafelmusik, also drew a refreshingly baroque bloom and light, evanescent ornaments from the OSC strings in all three works.
But he elicited little corresponding detail from Belfast's Renaissance Singers, producing accounts which were accurate but mostly bland.
There were exceptions. The choir - pure-voiced, balanced, and sounding well almost throughout - recovered with aplomb from a near-derailment and turned the torturously chromatic opening chorus of No. 131 into one of the concert's highlights.
Another feature of the two early cantatas is that they contain between them almost no purely solo singing. There are instead duets and even a trio, all sung with their customary insight and conviction by OSC regulars Lynda Lee, Alison Browner, Robin Tritschler and Nigel Williams.
The Bach Cantata series continues weekly until March 7th. Tel: 01-677 8571
