KILKENNY Arts Week suffered a midweek crisis when tenor Ronan Tynan had to pull out of yesterday evening's concert at St Canice's Cathedral. The participation of the Kilkenny singer was obviously seen in a very special light by local interests. His was one of only three concerts to have numbered seating and tickets priced at a premium of 75 per cent - a top price of £14 as opposed to the £8 for the bulk of the evening events.
The festival organisers went into high gear in response to the cancellation. They not only engaged replacements (soprano Kathryn Smith and mezzo soprano Marie Walshe), but generously offered those ticket holders who didn't want a refund free admission to this event PLUS admission to a rescheduled Ronan Tynan concert on December 20th. This solution, however, is one which serves the interests of locals rather than visitors, a strange decision for a festival which likes to gauge itself in terms of national, or even international, standing.
The original programme had offered the interesting prospect of hearing Ronan Tynan in a swathe of repertoire one wouldn't readily associate with him - there were songs by Duparc, Hahn, Faure and Satie along with the expected Italian material.
The substitute programme stayed largely in the area off operatic pot boiling, and, perhaps understandably in the circumstances, there was little of musical or vocal distinction to be found in the evening's offerings. The original accompanist, the Australian Damian Whiteley (himself a singer), bravely stayed the course and offered a couple of piano solos to boot.
There had been more of interest in Tuesday's lunchtime programme by the Dublin choir, Cantique. After Stanford, Bax and Britten, all their chosen repertoire was by living composers, John Tavener, Arvo Part, Henryk Gorecki, Arne Mellnas, Eibhlis Farrell and Petr Eben.
Under its current director, Blanaid Murphy, the choir has retained the programming ideals of its early years. The aspirations of drama and strong statement were well in evidence in its performing style, but limitations of intonation (so crucial in contemporary music) and blend (with individual voices sticking out too often from the choral lines) limited the rewards that were to be had from their work.
I got altogether greater satisfaction yesterday lunchtime from hearing the young players of the RIAM Baroque Ensemble, who have been trained by Deirdre Ward to perform as a conductorless group. Their work may not represent the last word in baroque style, but they really do play together as a chamber orchestra, and the enjoyment they take in their music making is palpable. Shame on the Arts Week organisers for failing to credit (even in the "corrected" programme book) the young soloists (not all of whom I recognised) in two concertos by Vivaldi.
