Radio commercials for Andrea Bocelli's concert at the Point this September are already being aired and there will probably be no shortage of people willing to pay from € 55 to € 155 to hear his melancholy tones echoing around that cheerless cavern, writes Liam McAuley.
Well, to each his own, I suppose. But in music, as in everything else, high prices are no guarantee of high quality and there is surely much better value available in the coming weeks - and in far more salubrious surroundings.
Best value of all, perhaps - on offer for the price of a postage stamp - are the RTÉ Farmleigh Proms, running over seven consecutive nights at the end of July. The music - of which more later - varies from light classical works to jazz and pop, performed in a marquee in the gardens. Free tickets are allocated through a postal lottery, with applications closing next Friday (see footnote).
The Proms are just part of an attractive series of free cultural events running at Farmleigh throughout the next four months - from tomorrow week, Sunday July 6th, until the end of October. This is in marked contrast to the summers of 2001 and 2002, when the house and gardens were for open for such activities for just a week and a fortnight respectively.
Lynda Hendley of the Office of Public Works, which manages the house and gardens, describes its Farmleigh programme as "the State's way of giving something back to the public, a conscious attempt to broaden its appeal". In other words, the powers that be, conscious that Farmleigh has had a bad press since the Government acquired and restored the former Guinness family home at a cost of close to €60 million in public money, are keen to correct the impression that the place is reserved for fat cats and foreign dignitaries. The Taoiseach is, no doubt, banking on a boo-free experience when he formally announces the summer programme at Farmleigh next Monday.
Be that as it may, a look at the OPW's brochure "This Season At Farmleigh" effectively disarms begrudgery. Each month has a distinct theme: music in July; gardens in August; food in September; and writing in October. The music programme features Sunday afternoon concerts in the gardens, open to all, as well as several ticketed events in the ballroom. These include works by Haydn, Brahms and Bartok performed by the Callino Quartet; an evening of tango music by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla; jigs, reels and hornpipes played by Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Dermot Byrne of Altan; and classic jazz songs performed by Honor Heffernan and the Noel Kelehan Quartet.
Then come the RTÉ Farmleigh Proms, beginning on Saturday, July 26th with "Italian Favourites" - overtures and arias by Verdi, Rossini, Puccini and others performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Anissimov, with the soprano Orla Boylan. This is followed by "Russian Favourites" - music by Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Khachaturian and Glière presented by the same orchestra and conductor with the violinist Sasha Roshdestvensky. Then the Ulster Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Braithwaite and pianist Hugh Tinney take over for "Spooky Delights", a evening of music by Mussorgsky, Liszt, Offenbach, Smetana and Gluck with a somewhat ghostly theme.
Other Proms events include the RTÉ Big Band conducted by the eminent jazzman Robert Lamb in a Glenn Miller Gala; and the same conductor leading the Big Band and Concert Orchestra in "The Rat Pack" - a concert devoted to songs associated with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr sung by Peter Corry, Lance Ellington and the Sinatra sound-alike Sean Hession. This show got an exuberant reception over two nights in the Helix earlier this month.
Meanwhile, RTÉ Music's series of lunchtime concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Orchestra continue each Tuesday at the National Concert Hall until September 2nd, with all tickets priced at only €8 (€6 conc.). July 8th, for example, features the violinist Aisling O'Dea with the NSO under Colman Pearce; the programme includes Ravel's Bolero and Chabrier's Espana. The following week, Iona Petcu-Colan will play Prokofiev's Violin Concerto
No. 1 with the NSO; the programme also includes extracts from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the conductor is David Brophy, a rising star in Irish music. I'll make a particular effort to catch this concert, having heard the same soloist give a memorable rendering of Beethoven's violin concerto last summer.
Prices are a bit higher for both orchestras' summer series of teatime and evening concerts, also at the NCH - generally from €8 to €20, depending on seats - but you're still going to get a lot of music for your money, and the ambience will be much more pleasant than that surrounding Signor Bocelli's gig, if you get my point.
- The closing date for receipt of ticket applications for the RTÉ Farmleigh Proms is next Friday, July 4th. For information on how to apply for these and other Farmleigh events phone 01-815-7200 or check the website www.farmleigh.ie. Brochures are also available at local libraries.