Madam, - Deirdre Falvey reports (ArtScape, July 12th) that the proposed Irish cultúirfeis in China is to be postponed until 2004.
This is great news, as it means the organisers have an opportunity to redress the fiasco of the recent "Reimagining Ireland" débâcle in Virginia, in which not one single reference to contemporary classical music composition in Ireland was made. (See Raymond Deane's and Patrick Zuk's trenchant articles in the Journal of Music In Ireland, Vol 3, No 5.)
Let us hope that the Sino-Hibernian festival curator, Mr Wakely, includes some concert music in the Chinese programme as opposed to the exclusively traditional and trad/jazz fusion programme featured in Virginia.
The omission by festival organisers of contemporary concert music composition is endemic. In an article in the same edition on the BBC Proms, great coverage is given to the diversity and breadth of these important concerts, and a little box refers helpfully to the "The Proms, Irish Style", which take place at Farmleigh in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
What Aenghus Collins's article omits is the contrast in approach of the two events: each year the BBC commissions important new works from composers for the various international ensembles which are to perform that season, whereas nothing of the sort happens here. The concerts are based around old favourites, operatic delights, and "the music of Benny and Bjorn". (I mean, really?). - Yours, etc.,
FERGUS JOHNSTON,
Composer,
Trader's Wharf,
Usher's Quay,
Dublin 8.