Concert review: Bryce Dessner, Cashel Day-Lewis and Conor O’Brien among stars at NCH
Mina Tindle and Conor O'Brien (Villagers) on stage at the National Concert Hall for The Cruellest Month. Picture: Kerrie Sheedy/National Concert Hall
★★★★☆
The National guitarist Bryce Dessner is artist-in-residence at Dublin’s National Concert Hall this year and as part of the hookup, headed a series of concerts and ‘musical meetings’ under the title The Cruellest Month at the venue over the weekend (April 11-13). Curated alongside Sounds from a Safe Harbour and the record label Brassland, the air of collaboration and interweaving musicians does seem reminiscent of the giddiness of SFSH - the Cork festival returns in September, with a lineup announcement due in the next month. One of the Leeside event's curators, Cillian Murphy, was also viewing proceedings at the NCH.
Dessner introduced proceedings in the Studio room on Saturday evening by explaining that he wanted some world premieres as part of The Cruellest Month. Cashel Day-Lewis is a composer and violinist - and yes, son of actor Daniel - who graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the US having completed a bachelor of music degree in composition.
His commission is first up, performed by Crash Ensemble - “one of Ireland’s many treasures”, according to Dessner. A playful baroque piece woven over eight-plus minutes, it almost screeches to a conclusion. A new chamber piece by Dessner, an accomplished soundtrack artist in his own right, called is also performed.
He says: “It's inspired by the murder ballad tradition, which I believe comes in part from here and then made its way over to the Appalachian hills in America and tuned down and tuned up and twisted over the centuries into these famous songs that some of you will recognise.”
As Crash Ensemble perform the works, they’ve joined by Sam Amidon, Day-Lewis, and Dessner, the swelling 10-piece bowing to uproarious applause by the end.
In the auditorium later in the evening, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Thomas ‘Doveman’ Bartlett, need no introduction to the NCH. Their trad supergroup The Gloaming have played numerous uproarious shows here over the past decade. Their gently spiralling five songs are heart-warming, with Bartlett, cowering over the piano, almost aping Martin Hayes as he stomps his feet.
What follows is an eclectic mix featuring French singer-songwriter Mina Tindle (wife of Dessner), the Parisian quartet Quatuor Zaïde, Kate Staples (This is the Kit), Villagers’ Conor O’Brien, Benjamin Lanz on drums, and intermittently Bartlett and Ó Raghallaigh.
“There’s many years of music making up on the stage right now,” says Dessner at one point. He dedicates the aptly-titled to Mary Hickson from SFSH, who had been with the musicians all week. “Mary is basically the most amazing person on the planet,” he says of the Fermoy woman.
O’Brien performs two of his tunes, and and seems at ease surrounded by such talent.
The final song of the night is a cover of Sufjan Stevens’ which featured in the 2017 film and was produced by Bartlett. It’s achingly beautiful, Tindle, Staples, and O’Brien sharing the vocals, the latter pleading: “How much sorrow can I take… when this love is over.”
Though the NCH is not sold out, the few hundred in attendance have seen something special.
