Rewind '98
It has been a year full of promise for music in Ireland. In January the Taoiseach voiced his support for John O'Conor's proposal to set up an Irish Academy for the Performing Arts (IAPA). RTE added six night-time hours to the output of FM3 Classical Radio, and announced its eventual replacement by a new, round-theclock music and arts channel, Lyric FM. RTE's musical activities got a boost when Niall Doyle became music director in July. And the NSO benefitted from the appointment of Alexander Anissimov as principal conductor, with Gerhard Markson as chief guest conductor.
The Music Network seeded a venture that will bring a string quartet-in-residence to Sligo. DCU has plans to build a 1,200-seater concert hall on campus, with additional theatres seating 450 and 150. The NCH has a proposal for a 300-seater recital hall. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland surprised everyone by proposing a new, all-Ireland opera company. The University of Limerick launched a new MA in Classical String Performance. And in contemporary music, Composers Ink swung into action, the Crash Ensemble continued to attract fresh audiences to its sold-out concerts, the Association of Irish Composers presented four challenging programmes at the Hugh Lane Gallery, and both Marco Polo and Black Box produced noteworthy CDs of Irish music.
Not everything, even in the above list, is as simply rosy as it might seem. An interdepartmental report on IAPA is still being considered by the ministers for arts and education, but no action has been taken. The proposal is of the "quart into a pint pot" variety, and the disadvantages of the proposed Earlsfort Terrace site are manifold. UCD seems in no hurry to move out, and converting existing buildings is a low second best for as specialised an activity as music.
Meanwhile, DCU beckons attractively, and would seem a far wiser choice for facilities to meet the needs of the 21st century for music, let alone dance and theatre, the other major art forms involved. Public debate on the IAPA idea has, however, focused attention on the shocking situation of music in our schools, where provision is among the worst in Europe. Daytime output on Lyric FM seems set to mimic Classic FM rather than BBC Radio 3, which is unlikely to please all music lovers. The NCH's recital hall is being opposed by a sporting lobby, anxious to restore a historic real tennis court; indications are An Bord Pleanala will have the last word here.
Noises on the ground in the North suggest a shakiness of nerve about the enormity of ACNI's daring opera proposal. And, at a consultative forum in September, the Dublin Arts Council, funder of the major new developments in contemporary music, found itself facing pressure to formulate and declare a music policy as a first move towards a more transparent relationship with the music sector.
At this stage, the narrow focus of the NCH's in-house promotions makes it hard to feel enthusiastic about such a body, essentially reactive if not actually reactionary, becoming the owner of a dedicated chamber music space, however limited. The current state of artistic planning for the new space makes affirmative sounds about contemporary music, education and even deprived inner-city communities, but, incredibly, manages to deal with the matter of repertoire without naming a single composer, either living or dead.
On the concert front, the Borodin String Quartet's residency at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival stands out in the memory along with Philippe Cassard's marathon of Debussy's piano music at the National Gallery, Evgeny Kissin's piano recital at the NCH, Bruno Giuranna's debut as principal guest conductor of the ICO, Maya Homburger's selection of Biber Mystery Sonatas at Kilkenny Arts Week, Roger O. Doyle's American programme with the National Chamber Choir, the Danish RSO in Nielsen's Inextinguishable Symphony under Michael Schnwandt, Alexander Anissimov conducting Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the NSO, and John Eliot Gardiner's Belfast Festival appearance with his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.
Fast Forward '99
The year ahead is likely to be at least as interesting as the year past. Many of the interesting developments of 1998 will only bear fruit in 1999 or later.
Major attention will focus on RTE. Niall Doyle has established a review team (his partners there are Debbie Metrustry and Brian O'Rourke). He has appointed an acting manager to the NSO, Peter Ramsauer, former general manager of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, who's also a consultant to the broader process of change. The internal consultative process is already under way, with public consultation to follow soon.
In one step the new string quartet in Sligo will double the number of full-time chamber musicians at work in Ireland and, perhaps more significantly, extend the list of employers for civilian full-time musicians beyond RTE and the Irish Chamber Orchestra. The new project has been made possible through novel co-operation between Sligo Co Council, Sligo Corporation, Co Sligo VEC, Music Network and the Arts Council, and Music Network's John O'Kane has been nursing the project from its inception. "It is," he says, "a project which involved the forging of a remarkable partnership of key local statutory bodies and national agencies. It will act as a catalyst for sustainable music development in Co Sligo and it creates a model which can be used for similar developments in other parts of the country." The posts have been advertised internationally, and the new quartet should take up residence in September.
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival, from June 27th to July 4th, promises more events (morning coffee concerts) plus residencies by the Arditti String Quartet (world leaders in the interpretation of new music), the award-winning period instruments group Quatuor Mosaiques, and fortepianist Patrick Cohen. Xenakis, Ferneyhough, Ades and Kurtag rub shoulders with Bach, Boccherini, Haydn and Beethoven. There's even talk of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano. And at the centre of it all will be a performance of Mozart's great Serenade for 13 winds. Put the dates in your diary now.
Highlight: The West Cork Chamber Music Festival scored again, with a landmark residency by that greatest of Russian chamber ensembles, the Borodin String Quartet.
Lowlight: Opera Ireland's winter season, with its return to artistic yo-yoing: incomprehensible casting decisions (including voices which couldn't be heard), extremely variable musical standards, and a risible operetta production (Die Fledermaus).
