MATTHEW SCHELLHORN (PIANO): Harty Room, Belfast Thurs 8pm £10 048-90246609; Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray 8pm Sat 11th €16 01-2724030; City Hall, Dublin Sun 12th Noon Adm free 01-2225550
CATHAL ROCHE (SAXOPHONE), MIA COOPER (VIOLIN), CLIONA DORIS (HARP), RICHARD O’DONNELL (VIBRAPHONE), DANIEL BODWELL (BASS), STU RITCHIE (DRUMS)
Marlay Park House, Rathfarnham Sat 1pm; Kilternan Church of Ireland Sat 8pm Adm free 01-2719530
World premieres are pretty rare occurrences in concerts of music specifically associated with Holy Week. There's one this Thursday, however, when pianist Matthew Schellhorn gives the first complete performance of Ian Wilson's Stationsat the Harty Room in Belfast. The sequence of the Stations of the Cross, says Wilson, is the structural and emotional basis of his 65-minute piece. "I wanted to expand the potential 'meaning' of the work so that intimations of programme music or purely impressionistic or pictorial responses would not arise, but a strong, unified journey-type piece would result that creates its own sense of musical drama." Schellhorn follows the Belfast premiere with repeats in Bray (on Saturday) and Dublin (on Easter Sunday).
Before all of that, there's another Wilson premiere (also with a repeat) this weekend. On Saturday, his Double Trio, commissioned as part of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council's Place Identity programme, will be performed at Marlay Park House (lunchtime) and Kilternan Church of Ireland. This work, "inspired by the area and people of Glencullen" is for a sextet split between players of classical and jazz backgrounds.
