{TABLE} Violin Sonata in A minor Op 23. Beethoven Waterscape, Marian Ingoldsby Caprice Viennois ....... Kreisler Piano Sonata in C Op 2 No 3 Beethoven Poeme .......... Chausson Sonata in E flat Op 81a (Les Adieux) Beethoven Le baiser de l'enfant Jesus Messiaen Etude in C minor Op 10 No 12 Chopin Etude in F minor Op 10 No 9 .................. Chopin Scherzo No 2 ...................................................... Chopin {/TABLE} THE classical music programme of Galway Arts Festival was this year confined to lunchtime recitals. The last of these, "arranged by Music for Galway" (in other words, one is encouraged to believe, somehow not the direct responsibility of the festival itself), was given at St Nicholas Collegiate Church on Friday by the 18 year old pianist, Maria McGarry.
Introducing this young player, Music for Galway's Jane O'Leary pointed out that, such is the meagerness of educational provision for music in the west of Ireland, that the mere emergence of a player like McGarry from a place like Ballyhaunis is itself a matter of wonder particularly for the level of commitment involved, not least the weekly trips to Dublin for lessons over a seven year period.
Equally a matter of wonder is the latest piano which is available for these Galway recitals. Can it be a matter, of pride to anyone that a major Irish arts festival can improve its provision for pianists by calling on a Steinway more than a century old, brought over to this country by the tenor John McCormack?
This is an instrument which might reasonably be expected to feature in a museum or in historical recitals of repertoire contemporary with its manufacture rather than a mixed recital at an annual arts festival.
In the event, the piano appeared to withstand well the rigours of the obviously talented McGarry's big hearted style. This young player is most notable for a strange sense of fantasy. She's one of those pianists who accommodates the music she plays to her particular expressive interests rather than adjusting her responses to the concerns of the composer.
Beethoven and Chopin demand more than playing which is fleet of finger, full of feeling (the roaring and tumbling of Chopin's Scherzo in B flat minor, in particular, gave the feeling that it was more finger led than consciously controlled).
It was in the poignant, slow opening section of Messiaen's Le baiser de l'enfant Jesus that this characterful performer and music she chose seemed most fruitfolly aligned it was here also that the effects of the unusually swimmy acoustic of the venue were at their least aggravatingly invasive. (Oh, and by the way, the cost of a new concert grand piano would be about .02 per cent of the cost of an Olympic swimming pool.)
