Sounds to thrill the ear

THIS was the question asked of Francis Humphrys, the artistic director of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, by the French horn virtuoso, Herve Joulain.

I first heard Joulain in Bantry in 2008. As usual, Francis has marvellously challenging, unusual works for him to play, all of them written in the 20th century. I resent waiting until July to hear them. Only one of them, Jean Francaix’s Octet (written for the same instruments as Schubert’s gorgeous Octet), is familiar to me. The others include Ligeti’s Homage á Brahms trio for violin, horn and piano, Belfast-born Howard Ferguson’s Octet, and Olivier Messiaen’s Appel Interstellaire.

This brief, brilliant masterpiece is the 6th movement, for solo horn, from Messiaen’s huge orchestral work, Des canyons aux étoiles, first performed in 1974. The concert will be in memory of the late owner of Bantry House, Egerton Shelswell-White. Without the vision and generosity of this self-effacing, trombone-playing, gentle man, the festival might never have happened. Coupled with Messiaen’s mind-blowing piece is Tchaikowsky’s 3rd string quartet, the slow movement of which is marked ‘Andante funebre e doloroso’, appropriate to this first late-night concert of the 18th festival.