A selection of reviews by Irish Timescritics

Glennie, NYOI SO/ MassonNCH, Dublin

Minoru Miki – Marimba Spiritual. Joseph Schwantner – Percussion Concerto. Bruckner – SymphonyNo 4 (Romantic)

THE NATIONAL Youth Orchestra of Ireland Symphony Orchestra’s current programme is one of the most adventurous the orchestra has ever prepared.

The first half was presented in subdued coloured lighting, with a white spotlight for the soloist, percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

The evening opened with just the percussion section on the stage, Glennie joining the young players for Minoru Miki's Marimba Spiritual, one of those hot-and-cold percussion pieces, which mixes high-powered drumming (and collective shouts) with more reflective material.

Extremes are also a feature of Joseph Schwantner’s Percussion Concerto, premiered in 1995. It is full of dramatic gestures and is scored for maximum colouristic and percussive effectiveness. Glennie is just the person to make the most of its showpiece characteristics and, under French conductor Diego Masson, the orchestra matched her every step of the way.

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is never going to be comfortable for a youth orchestra. The writing is too focused and too relentless in its technical demands and the piece has too many passages where, as it were, there is nowhere to hide.

The performance was patchy. Many of the abrupt transitions failed to work properly. The necessary massiveness of string tone was not forthcoming – the cello section fared best in bringing a sense of weight to its singing lines. And there were signs of hesitancy at moments when firmness was of the essence.

None of these shortcomings, however, applied to the heavy brass, with the horns, trombones, trumpets and tuba having one of the finest nights I’ve ever heard from an Irish youth orchestra.

The horn section played with extraordinary confidence, not just in the Brucknerian climaxes but also at the quieter end of the scale. Masson was wowed by them too, giving the impression he could not encourage enough individual bows at the end of the performance to express his appreciation of the section and its leader. MICHAEL DERVAN

The Fisherman's Son36 Cecil Street, Limerick

CIARDA TOBIN'S play The Fisherman's Sonis a sophisticated exercise in old-fashioned storytelling, bringing together three generations of a Limerick family whose fate mirrors the changing face of Ireland.

Peter, in an affecting performance by John Murphy, is a carpenter, boatbuilder and salmon fisher, whose way of life is slipping through the nets with the challenges of modern life. Having lost his wife, Annie, he is ready to build his own coffin, but his passing from this world will be slow and humiliating.

His son John, played at various ages by the able Denis Foley, is less certain of his values or place in the world. Divorced, a modern émigré in Belgium, he is racing towards a future that has no time for the intricacies of traditional crafts or modes of living such as fishing.

They are brought together by John’s son Sam (Maurice Foley), whose oral histories seek to preserve both the old way of life that his grandfather represents and the family relationships.

Told through a combination of real-time action, narration and flashback, Tobin keeps a firm eye on character, even if the generational divide and its parallels with the passage of 20th- century Ireland seem laboured, especially in the final scene.

However, there is real verve in the writing and an ear for idiom. Director Bairbre Ní Chaoimh’s sensitive hand eschews sentimentality where it can.

Emma Fisher’s raw deal set is strung with nets and ropes, making the theatre space itself the boat’s workshop. Kevin Smith’s lighting facilitates the timeframe changes, but does little in the way of creating atmosphere.

As a lament for lost times and the ever-evolving family unit, The Fisherman's Sonis a touching, if somewhat cliched, tribute. But there is a quiet tragedy building as Peter's boat floats towards its final destination, the river Lethe, where the "man with the black hands", and his wife, are waiting. SARA KEATING

Runs until July 18th