Kevin Courtney hears Coldplay at Marlay Park in Dublin; Martin Adams reviews the Pipeworks International Organ Competition at Christ Church Cathedral; and Andrew Johnstone listens to the RTE NSO conducted by Gavin Maloney at the National Concert Hall.
Coldplay
Marlay Park, Dublin
Coldplay came to U2's stronghold, and their intention was clear - they were out to topple the dark lords of stadium rock. On a glorious summer's evening in Rathfarnham, the British band played the first date of their Twisted Logic tour, and singer Chris Martin told the crowd U2 were the greatest, but "I think maybe we come a close - well, a not-so-close - second."
Luckily, Martin doesn't attempt to emulate Bono's showmanship, but relies on his quiet charisma and Coldplay's superb songcraft to carry the crowd along. Jonny Buckland's guitar may echo Edge's delay-pedal dazzle, particularly on the current single, Speed of Sound, but Coldplay have gotten where they are today - number one in 26 countries, including the US - by sounding like no one except themselves.
The show opens with Square One, a paean to ripping it up and starting again - something at which Coldplay have become past masters. They scrapped early sessions for their new album, X + Y, and the subsequent delays caused EMI shareholders to tear out what was left of their hair. Onstage, though, the songs sound pristine, almost as gleaming as the sunshine bouncing off the lighting rig. As Martin pounded out the refrain from Politik, you could clearly see the initials MTF (Make Trade Fair) on the side of his piano.
During an hour-plus set, Coldplay delivered such hits as God Put a Smile On Your Face, The Scientist and In My Place, along with favourites from their first two albums and a modest selection of new songs. What if was an Elton John-esque ballad about the remote possibility of Martin's wife Gwyneth Paltrow doing a runner, and Swallowed by the Sea was a fine, Beatlesque anthem.'Til Kingdom Come was a stripped-down acoustic tune that showed Coldplay may be just as adept as U2 at digging into their musical roots. After an unplugged version of Don't Panic, the multicoloured lightshow powered up, and the first swirls of Clocks swept across the park. It provided a welcome injection of colour and excitement into an otherwise mature and measured performance. Coldplay may be still puny hobbits compared to U2, but you wouldn't want to underestimate them. Behind Martin's puppy-like demeanour lurks a steely determination to be top dog.
Pipeworks International Organ Competition
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
Programming is one of the challenges of the Pipeworks Competition. Sixteen players from 12 countries, including Ireland's Mark Keane, made it through to the second round. Then and in the finals, the competitors chose their own programmes. My imaginary prize for programming went to the Canadian Isabelle Demers. Although she came fourth, her choice - Bach's Passacaglia in C minor BWV582, Petr Eben's Fantasia II and Reger's Fantasy and Fugue on BACH - was perfect for concert as well as competition. Her weakest point was the Bach, which was rhythmically inert - quite the opposite of the apt flamboyance she showed in the Reger.
Third was Ashley Grote, whose roundly musical, well-mannered and enjoyable contribution epitomised a very-English style of organ playing. In Dupré's Variations sur un vieux Noël, he displayed some of the most resourceful registration of the evening.
Australian-born Tristan Russcher, who since 2003 has been organ scholar of St Patrick's and Christchurch Cathedrals, came second. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D BWV532 was a model of controlled boisterousness; and although the Final of Vierne's Symphony No. 6 was not reckless enough, its liveliness was infectious.
The winner, by the jury's unanimous choice, was the Norwegian musician Guttorm Edvin Guleng who, at 28, was the oldest competitor. He was my choice too, for nobody matched his differentiation of styles ranging from baroque stylus phantasticus to the romantic excess of Karg-Elert's Passacaglia and Fugue on BACH.
Four 40-minute programmes made for a long evening. However, sustained quality was attested by the fact that when the jury's decision was announced, time seemed to have flown.
McGonnell, RTÉ NSO/Maloney
National Concert Hall, Dublin
Mozart - Die Entführung aus dem Serail Overture. Rossini - Introduction, Theme and Variations. Puccini - Manon Lescaut Intermezzo. Mendelssohn - Midsummer Night's Dream (exc)
The RTÉ summer lunchtime series functions partly as a springboard for new artists, and this concert was directed by the assistant conductor of the RTÉ NSO Gavin Maloney. In mainstream repertoire, it's not unknown for the NSO to be oppressed by a certain staleness. But there wasn't a hint of it on this occasion: despite some untidy playing here and there, the sounds were clear, and retained classical proportions even in the loudest of Mozart's and Mendelssohn's tuttis.
Composed before Rossini turned to stage work, his Introduction, Theme and Variations for clarinet and orchestra is nonetheless a piece with operatic turns. At its recitative-like moments, Maloney ensured the orchestra was exactly where soloist Carol McGonnell needed it. The variations rapidly ascend to a Paganini-like level of difficulty that far exceeds the demands of ordinary clarinet-playing. Though McGonnell didn't quite sustain her virtuosity throughout some of the most extreme passage-work, it was to the music's overall shape, rather than to fleeting details, that she wisely gave precedence. And into the work's lyrical moments - the minor-key variation, for example - she poured an expressiveness seldom to be heard from so nonchalant an instrument.
Perhaps you'd expect a young conductor to be at his best in music by composers still in their teens, such as the items by Rossini and Mendelssohn. Yet it was in the maturer world of Puccini that Maloney's promise came to the fore. The adroit management of a romantic orchestral climax would appear to be second nature to him.
