Martin Adams reviews both the Crash Ensemble/Pierson at the O'Reilly Theatre and Karl Sweeney (violin) / Deborah Kelleher (piano) at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre in Dublin

Crash Ensemble/Pierson
O'Reilly Theatre, Dublin

Gloria Coates - String Quartet No 6 Louis Andriessen - Zilver
Yannis Kyriakides - Seventeen and a Half
John Adams - Shaker Loops

The Crash Ensemble's choice of music for last Thursday's concert hit the bullseye. All four pieces fill the space they set themselves; and under the conducting of Alan Pierson of the American group Alarm Will Sound, the playing hit the mark.

It would be hard to imagine two more-differing contemporary pieces for strings than those that opened and closed this concert. The markings of Gloria Coates's three-movement String Quartet No. 6 say something about its general character: Still, Meditation, Evanescence. But that cannot prepare you for music so expressive yet distilled to the minimum of material and events. Everything - a glissando, a vibrato that might be wide or narrow - makes an impact.

This quartet and Gloria Coates's pre-concert interview with Michael Dervan revealed a fascinating combination of imaginative flair, generous humanity and formidable self-discipline.

Seven string players were on the platform for the closing work, John Adams's Shaker Loops. The performance had the energy that makes this such a scintillating concert piece. Yet it also had a flexible aspect that revealed subtleties often lost in the usual hard-driven approach.

Yannis Kyriakides's Seventeen and a Half is built around pre-recorded samples of the opening of Varàse's Density 21.5, slowed down around 100 times. There is a constant and intriguing interplay between the harmonic sonorities of the recording and those created by the instruments, which move at various, shifting speeds.

However, if I had to choose highlights of this concert, they would be the Coates and Louis Andriessen's Zilver. The latter tested the Crash's precision to its limits, but the result was compelling. As with the Adams, this differed from the norm for this work; and the music seemed better for it.

Karl Sweeney (violin) / Deborah Kelleher (piano)
Bank of Ireland Arts Centre

Brahms - Sonata in G Op78
Waxman - Carmen Fantasie

Karl Sweeney's recital last Wednesday lunchtime consisted of just two works - one for fireworks, the other for profound musicianship. For a young violinist in his early 20s wishing to show what he can do, this was appropriate programming.

Several things were clear about this young man's playing.

He makes a sound that is almost always pleasing; there are no serious glitches of tone or intonation; he can shape a phrase in a way that shows sound musicality; he can gallop around and he can sustain a long, slow melodic line.

All those strengths helped create an account of Brahms's Sonata in G Op. 78 that was roundly musical, though limited in its range of expression.

The first movement needed more contrast between the first and second main themes, and throughout the sonata, the soloist produced insufficient give-and-take tension with Deborah Kelleher's responsive and always-shapely piano playing. Everything felt slightly detached.

By contrast there were smiles all round the audience during Waxman's Carmen Fantasie.

As such pieces go this is pretty crude stuff, and no match for the brilliant piece of the same name by the king of violinist virtuoso-composers, Sarasate. However, it revels in stretching the violinist's technique, in dazzling the audience with pyrotechnics of left and right hand.

In this work Karl Sweeney seemed more relaxed than in the Brahms, even though it presented much greater technical demands.

Here was the panache that had been wanting earlier.

Martin Adams