Review: Irish Chamber Orchestra at University Concert Hall, Limerick

There was a cheerful buzz at University Concert Hall, Limerick, recently, as pupils of the ‘Sing Out With Strings’ programme tuned up for their interval, foyer performance at the Irish Chamber Orchestra concert. 

Youth prevailed in the main fare also. The programme, titled ‘Wunderkind 3’, was a triple-decker musical ‘sandwich’ as the ensemble, under guest conductor, Jörg Widmann, explored the string symphonies of a young Mendelssohn, adding outer ‘crusts’ of Prokofiev quintets and ‘a filling’ of Widmann’s own string duos.

For starters, Prokofiev’s attractive Overture on Hebrew Themes was performed in the original version for quintet, with pianist Hugh Tinney. Widmann added the characteristic klezmer on clarinet. The accoutrements of the aerial dance company, Fidget Feet, were suspended over the stage, adding a novelty, circus ambience. Aisling Ní Cheallaigh and Kathryn Cooley took centre stage, adding beguiling, aerial acrobatic manoeuvres to the closing work. Prokofiev’s Opus 39, subtitled ‘Trapeze’, (scored for oboe and clarinet, violin viola and, unusually, double bass) was conceived and performed as a ballet in 1925, although the rhythmic complexity was the source of tension between composer and choreographer. Oboist Daniel Bates joined Widmann on clarinet and the work, with its jazzy themes, made a bracing contrast to the string timbre of the symphonies.

Written over a two-year period as compositional exercises by a teenage Mendelssohn, the ensemble, under leader Katherine Hunka, showed the string symphonies to be works of great charm and vigour. It was easy to see the influence of the Baroque and Classical masters in ‘No 4’ and ‘8’, but there were some imaginative touches, too. In the Adagio of ‘No 8’, Mendelssohn leaves the violins twiddle their thumbs and divides the violas into three parts, with principal viola splendidly played here by Joachim Roewer.

In an impressive demonstration of musical multi-tasking, Widmann also acted as composer.

We heard five of the Suite of 24 duos for violin and cello composed for the Capucon brothers. Nicola Sweeney and Rudi de Groote made light work of the technical demands and there was a playful, humorous quality to the musical exchange between the two.

The Irish Chamber Orchestra present Joyeaux Noël on Thursday, December 11, at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cor; and on Friday, December 12  at St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick.