Are festivals devoted entirely to modern classical music a good idea? Do they not thrust a whole period of musical history into a ghetto? Are they not carnivals of musical élitism, annual feasts that provide concert promoters with a justification for starving us of modern music during the rest of the year?
I recently came across a magazine article in which I posed these questions almost 20 years ago, apropos the Music Association of Ireland's Dublin Festival of 20th Century Music. It was at the first of these festivals, in January 1969, that I had made my début as a composer/pianist and the event was very dear to my heart. My soul-searching article, therefore, was a particularly perverse example of tempting Fate, and Fate replied with a snip of its dread scissors. The 1986 event, which was to have featured the first Irish visit by the London Sinfonietta - perhaps the world's leading chamber orchestra specialising in modern music - in programmes including music by Luciano Berio, one of my heroes, and myself, was cancelled; and the festival was never resuscitated.
"Artistically successful"
For a time Carrolls Summer Music, an adventurous concert series associated with the conductor Colman Pearce, continued to fly the flag of new music, but by the late 1980s it had devolved into the lugubrious Summer Proms. 1989 and 1991 saw the two Accents festivals, the second of which was particularly ambitious and "artistically successful" (the latter term, as aficionados will recognise, is a euphemism for "financially disastrous"). Meanwhile, Belfast's Sonorities festival, despite using the Titanic as its logo, has continued to keep its head above water in the most adverse climatic conditions. New modern music festivals have started up in Cork, Waterford, and Sligo. Dublin alone has been a festival-free zone, an achievement practically unique among European capitals.
So here we go again. RTÉ's first Living Music Festival will take place at the new Helix centre in DCU next weekend, with sponsorship from IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organisation, and in association with the Italian Cultural Institute, the British Council, and Lyric FM. It will will feature some 200 performers from all over the world, including the London Sinfonietta belatedly taking up that 16-year-old invitation to the Republic (they have recently played in Belfast). The music of the great Luciano Berio will be central to the whole affair.
While works by six Irish composers will feature, alongside a host of international figures ranging from Stravinsky and Varèse to Stockhausen and Birtwistle (with a historical detour to take in Leopold Mozart), nothing by myself is included. This is because I am making my début as Artistic Director, and have decided that false modesty is the best armour against any possible assaults from the many deserving Irish composers whose works I have been unable to include.
Hosting Berio
As compensation, I get to foist my own tastes and prejudices on the public to an unprecedented degree. I also get to host Berio himself, which is a bit like being able to greet Handel. Of all great living composers he is perhaps the one whose significant works have been least performed in Ireland down the years, and he has been a great influence on my work since I first became aware of the riches and pleasures of modern music.
Alongside a plethora of chamber pieces, the festival includes three of his finest orchestral works (including the recent SOLO for trombone and orchestra with the Swedish superstar Christian Lindberg as soloist), and the spectacular Laborintus II for narrator, voices, tape and chamber orchestra. Given Berio's lifelong enthusiasm for James Joyce, it is astonishing that this will be the 77-year-old composer's first visit to Dublin. This could have something to do with the aforementioned absence of major performances here, since composers tend to travel where the premières are.
So, to return to my initial questions: is this festival just another trip to the ghetto, another cozy get-together for trendy élitists, another carnival to satiate us in advance of a few more lean years? Well, if you take a look at RTÉ's regular 2002-2003 series of subscription concerts, you'll find works by Varèse, Boulez (both of whom feature in the Festival of Living Music), Messiaen, Schnittke, Carter, Adams, and a number of living Irish composers. RTÉ's Vanbrugh String Quartet is including modern music in four of its next five tours. While few commentators have been more critical than myself of RTÉ's musical policies down the years, I am heartened by this evidence that the national broadcaster is taking its responsibilities seriously at a time when the Arts Council seems determined to dismantle the remaining vestiges of its support for living music.
Regular event
Meanwhile, Ben Dwyer's Mostly Modern concert series at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, the Hugh Lane Sunday concert series, and the Bantry Chamber Music Festival continue to feature contemporary music prominently. If the imminent RTÉ Festival of Living Music becomes a regular event, perhaps the general musical public will develop a healthy appetite for new music; and we who are already gluttons may anticipate a succession of carnivals separated by feasts.
• To book for the festival, contact The Helix at 01-700-7000, www.thehelix.ie. Further information from RTE Music at 01-208-2617; www.rte.ie/music