Cork native is fulfilling a dream of performing Mozart
I’m in the plush lobby of the Westbury Hotel off Dublin’s Grafton Street, where a grand piano adds a cultivated air to the scene of silver teapots and lunching ladies. How apt that I am here to meet Fionnuala Moynihan, one of the younger generation of exciting Irish piano virtuosos.
Music is at the heart of Moynihan’s family. The youngest of seven children, all but one work as professional musicians. In fact, they share a platform together on occasional tours as a family ensemble.
Moynihan grew up in Bishopstown in Cork, one of seven siblings, the youngest child of school teachers. All but one work as professional musicians and they share a platform together on occasional tours as a family ensemble.
“I had a wonderful childhood,” says Moynihan. “My first musical experiences were playing trad tunes on tin whistle with my dad. We would play in the car on the drive to Glenville where he was teaching and where we all went to school.”
Among the musical Moynihans, there are pipers, flautists and singers of distinction. How did she come to choose the piano? “As a small child, I was aware of our piano at home standing on its own and I remember thinking it seemed a bit lonely as nobody played it much.
"So when it came to choosing an instrument after my early music classes at Cork School of Music, I asked to play the piano. There was some concern that I was too small but one of the teachers, Bébhinn ní Mheara encouraged my early interest.”
Three decades later and Moynihan is a highly regarded virtuoso with an international profile. A graduate of conservatoires in Cork, Dublin, the UK , Hungary and Paris, she holds a doctorate for her work on 19th century Irish piano star, John Field.
Indeed, Moynihan won the John Field Prize at the 2009 Dublin Piano Competition and has performed his works all over Europe.
Moynihan, who lives in Dublin, is a keen hiker and there is talk of holiday trails in Austria and the Grand Canyon with her new husband Tim but on the day we meet, Moynihan has a new summit in her sights. Later this month on the exact birth date of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (below), she will begin a series of performances of the complete set of his sonatas in her home city of Cork.
What makes the venture even more auspicious is that she will be the first classical virtuoso to road test the newly acquired Steinway at Triskel Arts.
Complete Mozart cycles are a rare event. Moynihan completed her first complete cycle of Mozart solo piano sonatas at the Hugh Lane Gallery in 2010 to critical acclaim. She was the first pianist to attempt the feat in Ireland until British pianist, Christian Blackshaw’s cycle followed at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2016. How does she feel about revisiting the experience?
“I just can’t wait to do it all again. It is like meeting an old friend. The last time I played these sonatas, it was all so new. I had just finished my PhD. There are so many ways to approach these sonatas and this time it won’t be the same.
I’m excited but in a completely different way. There are echoes of so much of Mozart’s other works in the sonatas. You can hear snatches of the string quartets, solo flute lines and even his operatic arias in them.”
Moynihan radiates enthusiasm, and her eagerness to reach out and engage with to her audience is infectious. “I love to talk to the audience. I think that is down to my traditional roots. Trad musicians wouldn’t dream of coming out and sitting down without saying a word or two to their audience.”
Asked to namecheck some of her favourite musicians, she adores Matt Molloy and accordion player Dermot Byrne.
During her undergraduate years in Birmingham, she had the opportunity to hear many international pianists. She turned pages for Stephen Hough when he performed with the CBSO and she cites American pianist Murray Perahia’s interpretation of Bach as making a huge impression on her as a student.
Invitations are going out to local schools and colleges and Moynihan expresses the hope that there will be youngsters in the audience who may get their first experience of live Mozart at the lunchtime events.
She has travelled far in pursuit of excellence since her schooldays as a student of Eleanor Malone’s at Cork School of Music.
Future plans include a tour of Bach Goldberg Variations and a recording of a selection of the Mozart, Haydn and Clementi sonatas that have been the mainstay of her performing schedule since she launched on the scene.
But for or now she is looking forward to bringing it all back home. “I consider myself a fierce proud Cork lady. Cork was such a rich cultural place to grow up. I was so fortunate to be surrounded by all manner of music — trad, classical and jazz and a wonderful ballet company.
“Mozart is perfection. To me he is the most romantic, virtuosic and unique composers of all time. To come home and perform the music that I love in a beautiful venue like the Triskel means the world to me.”
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