AqualungVicar Street, Dublin- Tony Clayton-LeaIt's amazing what gorgeous songs and a mirrorball can do. In the confines of a medium-sized venue, populated by no more than 150 inquiring minds and guest-listed industry personnel, Matt Hales, the bookish singer-songwriter who has put his life's breath into Aqualung, transformed a chilly, empty night into a starlit evening of endless possibilities.
You might not think it from his determinedly British demeanour - on stage, he and his band sip tea from Aqualung mugs - but Hales is a quivering wreck of a songwriter.
His concerns are fragile and brittle and utterly adult, and his eponymous debut album of last year contains music and lyrics for people with little time for fanciful cream-cake pop.
Hales performed songs such as Good Times Gonna Come, Falling Out Of Love, Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Gentle, Just For A Moment, Everything Changed and Halfway To the Bottom.
On record they sound fresh and elegant; live, they are given further depth and meaning through a full band
sound.
New material such as Nothing Else Matters and Over suggest Hales will not be giving up for some time the virtues of expressing serious issues - love, emotional hurt, exultation - but when these matters are wrapped in folds of quite beautiful melodies it's difficult to complain.
A pristine cover of the Beach Boys' God Only Knows leads you to conclude that Hales is the missing link between Brian Wilson, Bends-era Radiohead and Nilsson; indeed, as he makes weak jokes and sips strong tea you wonder if someone as febrile and cerebral as Hales was made for these times.
Colin Carr, Vanbrugh Quartet
John Field Room, Dublin
- Michael Dervan
String Quintet In C G349 - Boccherini. Quartet No 2
- John Kinsella. String Quintet In A Op 39 -
Glazunov
Schubert is rather isolated among great composers by having chosen two cellos rather than two violas for his String Quintet In C. There has never been any shortage of works using the two-cello line-up, not least because the Italian composer and cellist Luigi Boccherini alone wrote more than 100 such pieces.
The members of the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet have come late to Boccherini but adopted his music with enthusiasm. They returned to him on this tour, with cellist Colin Carr, pairing his Quintet In C, G349, written in 1789, with the 1892 Quintet In A by Alexander Glazunov.
There's more in common between the two quintets than the use of cellos. Both composers are apt to say something a second time just for the sake of hearing it again. As a consequence, their musical structures can seem weak or overextended. But the technical finish of their music is first rate and, on this evidence, makes it a pleasure to play.
It's Boccherini who provided the greater pleasure for the listener. His geniality and sensuousness are hard to resist, and he's never shy of exploiting the rich possibilities of combining the two cellos. Glazunov's method is well polished. But he doesn't exploit the instruments as resourcefully, his thematic material is often mundane and his treatment of it suggests he spent too much time on creative autopilot.
Between these two works the quarter offered John Kinsella's Second String Quartet, completed in 1968, about the time he abandoned a career in computer programming to join RTÉ, where he eventually became head of music.
When this work was fairly new, performances highlighted its modernist tendencies - it's based on a 12-note row. Today, the Vanbrughs seek out a direct emotionalism, taking their cue from the fact that the composer intended the often desolate-sounding third movement as his "expression in music of the memory of his only sister, who died in infancy".
Steppes To Russian Composers
National Concert Hall, Dublin
- Christine Madden
An upbeat atmosphere usually prevails at performances by youth companies, and this Irish National Youth Ballet production was no exception. Friends, family members and ballet lovers bobbed to music played by a Russian duo in the foyer on their way into the concert hall.
A company of young and developing dancers requires a tailor-made programme to challenge without daunting them, a showcase for their burgeoning abilities. To accommodate this, the evening's dance highlighted the skills of all the dancers, at whatever stage of their development.
The opening number, a suite of dance composed by company director Anne Campbell-Crawford to pieces from Shostakovich's Jazz Album, proved an inspired selection. Light hearted and saucy without being raunchy, they gave the dancers the opportunity to warm into their performance with grace and cheek. Reminiscent of harlequins', the costumes by Xenya Ostrovskaia added to the playful atmosphere of the suite.
Following on, the Fairies Of The Seasons from Prokovief's Cinderella gave the younger ones a chance to sparkle, and they displayed astonishing grace and agility with their growing dance vocabulary, with help from excellent choreography by Fin Browne. The solo Nu Vot i - Ya, choreographed by Crawford to music by Arvo Pärt, gave Lindsay Ashe-Browne a chance to command the stage.
The final, well-chosen element of the programme, the Sleeping Beauty Suite, choreographed by Fiona Chadwick, showed the dancers both singly, with a solo by Danielle Moran, and in groups at their best; the waltz and the cats' dance were particularly enjoyable.
The dancers' professionalism was astonishing, given the range of ages within the company: eight to 21. They absorbed their infrequent glitches with composure - crucial to any professional performing artist, but so difficult in teenage years. There were no Bolshoi pyrotechnics, but these aren't necessary for a satisfying and ornamental evening of dance - and the company put its best foot forward to accomplish this.
Ernst Kovacic/David Owen Norris
Waterfront studio, Belfast
- Dermot Gault
Violin Sonata No 1 - Schumann. Three Romances
- Clara Schumann. Violin Sonata No 2 - Schumann
This recital for BBC Radio 3 was especially interesting, as the piano used was made in the 1840s in the factory owned by Clara Schumann's cousin Wilhelm Wieck of Dresden. It was bought by Robert Montgomery of Convoy, Donegal, apparently from Clara Schumann herself, and has been in Donegal ever since. It is now in the possession of the art historian Professor Anne Crookshank, who made it available for this recital. Recently restored, it is an elegant-looking instrument, if not as large as a modern piano. The treble register is lighter and drier than the piano sound we are used to, but the bass is convincingly sonorous.
David Owen Norris is just the player for this instrument, having made a special study of old pianos, and Ernst Kovacic, with his feeling for fine shades of expression, is well attuned to Schumann's nervous style.
Of Schumann's two late violin sonatas, the first is the most inspired. The second is rather long-winded, and one was not sorry that some repeats were omitted, but the light tone of the old piano helped to prevent the scherzo's hammering rhythms from being overpowering.
Another point of interest was the inclusion of Three Romances Op 22 by Clara Schumann. Women composers unfortunately faced prejudice in the 19th century, and Clara's efforts were received patronisingly. But this is music of sensibility and depth: an individual voice waiting to emerge, if anyone had been interested in hearing it.
Love With Arthur Lee
The Village, Dublin
- Kevin Courtney
Dublin's newest venue - basically the Mean Fiddler with a facelift - was the scene for the triumphant return of the original funky psychedelic folkie, whose 1967 album, Forever Changes, pops up in best-album-of-all-time lists with Pet Sounds and Revolver. Now 59, Lee is playing catch-up after a spell in jail on firearms charges, getting out just in time for a massive resurgence of interest in classic albums and their makers. He played an impressive gig at the Ambassador last year, but tonight he's got something special up his ruffled sleeve. With his old LA rival Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds for the delight and delectation of dad-rockers, nothing will do Lee but to recreate Forever Changes live.
A strident tambourine called the assembled to order as Lee warmed up with My Little Red Book, Orange Skies and Your Mind & We Belong Together. Lee's music is perfect for playing live, with its dips and swoops, its abrupt slowdowns and sudden gallops, and its wild swings between minors and major sevenths. Add Mark Randall's blinding lead guitar and that would be sufficient for a Summer of Love sensation.
When the eight-piece orchestra came on, however, the Love parade really gained momentum, and we were swept along by Forever Changes. Alone Again Or teased with its choppy chorus and finger-picking breakdowns, then delivered a blast of solo trumpet. Live And Let Live stormed ahead with its hard-rocking hippy polemic, stopping only to exhort us to "ask our leaders why". You Set The Scene was a spectacular finale. If there was a whiff of showbiz in the encore and a touch of the Wilson Picketts in Lee's shimmies, you'd have to forgive him, wouldn't you?
