Classical Review: Sinéad O’Halloran & Conor Palliser Crawford Gallery, Cork

5/5

Witnessing the emergence of special talent is always an exciting pleasure. So it was at the final concert of this year’s Crawford Gallery Summer Lunchtime Concerts. The spontaneous standing ovation accorded the duo by the capacity audience was richly deserved. We had experienced something very special indeed — a young lady, brilliantly sharing her joy in making music alongside one of the latest generation of superb piano accompanists to emerge from Cork School of Music.

O’Halloran, 20, began with a thoughtful, mature, interpretation of the 3rd of Bach’s Suites for unaccompanied cello. I was captivated, right from the first bars of the Prelude, by her phrasing.

The Allemande and Courante both danced joyfully, the Sarabande was thoughtfully moving, and the popular Boureés and Gigue just bounced with the happiness she transmitted.

Although dismissed by one highly-thought-of scholar with the phrase ‘we find novelties in this sonata that make it worth playing’, I suspect that he must have been listening with his eyes rather than his ears or his heart, because Debussy’s Sonata in D minor is full of colour, drama, and imagination. Only once, in the piano’s declamatory passage, about two minutes into the often mysterious first movement, was there a hint of imbalance between the partners. Otherwise, the rapport between them was such that they drew us into the heart of the music.

Dvorak’s popular Rondo, Op 94 gave O’Halloran scope to play with the music and her personality shone through every note. Palliser was with her every step of the way through this delightful music. When they came to Popper’s virtuosic Hungarian Rhapsody Op. 68 it was a case of no holds barred — absolutely brilliant, uninhibited, joyous playing!