Ardee Baroque – music and much more….
Ardee Baroque, Ardee’s festival of 17th and 18th century music, returns over the weekend of November 18th to the 20th to brighten the dark winter evenings and offer an escape from the prevailing economic doom and gloom.
While Ardee Baroque has carved out a strong reputation over the years as a festival of brilliant music in atmospheric venues, this year’s line-up shows the organisers are strengthening the non-musical events over the weekend. A theatre performance in Ardee Castle, art workshops for parents and children, a lecture on the Vikings of Annagassan, and an uilleann pipe-making demonstration add up to a festival which has something for nearly everyone. And with many events free, this year’s Ardee Baroque is very much a recession-friendly festival.
But it’s the glorious music of Handel, Mozart, Corelli and their contemporaries which has established Ardee Baroque on the country’s musical calendar, and this year’s festival will not disappoint long-term fans and those dipping their toe in the Baroque water for the first time. Says Festival Chairman, John Rountree, “We’re delighted to have the Irish Baroque Orchestra in Ardee for the festival, and their two concerts will be very special events. And to have, in addition, a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by pianist Fionnuala Moynihan will ensure that this year’s Ardee Baroque will be a memorable one.”
The Irish Baroque Ensemble will spend the week before the performances rehearsing in Ardee, where they will play for each of the four schools in Ardee, and musicians from the IBO will also perform for residents in Moorehall Lodge. But it’s on Friday the 18th that the festival begins in earnest with a full concert performance by the Irish Baroque Orchestra at St. Mary’s Abbey in Ardee. Under the direction of Grammy-nominated violinist, Monica Huggett, the orchestra will perform works by Teleman, Stradella, Corelli and Handel. Corelli’s Christmas Concerto will be familiar to many, but less well known will be the Sonate di viole by Stradella. One of the most influential composers of his time, Stradella had to flee Rome after he was exposed as having attempted to embezzle from the Church. After a series of scandalous affairs, he was the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt which became the subject of international diplomacy between the courts of Louis XIV and the Duke of Savoy. His luck eventually ran out in 1682, when he was stabbed to death by a hired killer in Genoa, after his romantic entanglements annoyed one too many aristocratic husbands.
The following Saturday morning at 11am sees musicians from the IBO gathered at the Library at the Market Square in Ardee for one of the most popular events of the festival. “Meet the Instruments” is aimed primarily at children, but is also enjoyed by adults. It sees musicians playing and talking about their instruments in an informal setting, with children encouraged to ask questions and get up close to violins, violas, and other unusual Baroque instruments.
Later on the Saturday, the focus switches from Library to Castle, and from music to theatre, when Ardee Baroque presents its first play. “Love and Fury – The Passion of Jonathan Swift” is a one-man play based on Swift’s writings, performed by David Heap. Having debuted at Dublin’s Fringe Festival, “Love and Fury” arrives in Ardee for one performance only. David Heap, who will be known to many people through playing Donal Maher for many years in Fair City, shows a Swift who could be writing about today, with his regret about disappointed love, his anger with bankers, and his worries about his mental health. Swift spent many years in neighbouring County Meath, and lived and wrote throughout the Baroque era. “Love and Fury” is an apt choice as the first theatrical piece to be part of Ardee Baroque.
Another first for Ardee Baroque takes place in the school hall of Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire on the Saturday evening. Fionnuala Moynihan will perform a programme of Bach piano music, which will include one of the most famous sequences of Baroque music, the Goldberg Variations. Published in 1741, the Goldberg Variations were neglected for centuries, and only came to prominence in the mid-twentieth century, when recordings by pianists such as Glenn Gould established them as among the most intriguing and enduring of classical pieces. Fionnuala Moynihan is one of Ireland’s leading pianists, and her recital schedule has taken her, amongst other far-flung places, to England, France, Holland, Italy, and the USA. She is the first person to be awarded a Doctorate in Music Performance from the Royal Irish Academy and Dublin City University. Fionnuala will give a free pre-concert talk, where she will outline her approach to performing the Goldberg Variations, in the Courtroom of Ardee Castle that afternoon at 4.30pm. Fionnuala will perform the concert on Louth Local Authorities’ own Steinway Model D Grand Piano, which normally resides in St. Peter’s, Drogheda, and which will move to the girls’ school for the duration of the festival.
Sunday, the final day of the festival, begins at a leisurely pace at 1.30 in the Courtroom of Ardee Castle, when uilleann piper, Patrick Martin, moves his normal place of work as a pipe-maker to Ardee for the afternoon. 2011 is Year of Craft, and one of the most interesting of crafts is the art of uilleann pipe making. Patrick Martin, as well as being an accomplished and well-travelled piper, also makes pipes, and visitors to Ardee Castle can see how the most sophisticated bag pipes in the world are created. And if you ask nicely, you might just get a tune from Patrick, as he will be in residence until 4.30pm. So call in to learn about how this instrument, which developed largely in the Baroque era, is made and played. Thanks to Louth Craftmark and the Crafts Council of Ireland who are supporting many craft-related events and activities throughout the year.
At 2pm, the first Baroque Atelier will begin in the Great Hall. In the Baroque era, an atelier was a workshop or studio where art and sculpture were created, and Susan Farrelly from Abbey Art Studios will recreate this workshop atmosphere for Ardee Baroque. Drawing inspiration from Baroque art, Susan’s workshops will see children and parents create their own work of art. Participants will climb the winding staircase to the top of the castle, where they will be presented with an ornate Baroque paper frame. What happens next is up to each young artist. Designed for children (9 to 14 years) to work with a parent, the Baroque Atelier is a fun way to explore art from the Baroque era, and to make your own portrait or landscape. There will be two chances to participate in the Baroque Atelier – 2pm and 4pm – but remember to book first.
Ardee is only a few miles from Annagassan, a village which is becoming very well known throughout Europe as the site of one of the most important Viking settlements identified in years. Known as Linn Duchaill, the site has undergone preliminary excavations, conducted under the supervision of Dr Mark Clinton. And it is Dr Mark Clinton who will deliver the Ardee Baroque lecture at Smarmore Castle at 3pm, where he will give an overview of the site results so far, and give an indication as to what might yet be uncovered at Louth’s own Viking settlement. The lecture is free.
All of which brings us to the final Ardee Baroque concert for 2011, and fittingly, it‘s the Irish Baroque Orchestra at St. Mary’s Abbey who will bring down the curtain. Their second concert of the festival will feature works by Giordani, Chevalier de Saint-George, Boccherini, and Mozart, and the concert will begin at 7pm. If Stradella provided the drama and intrigue in the first concert, then it’s the Chevalier de Saint- George who steals the show for real-life drama in the second. While we tend to think of Baroque composers as bewigged, portly, older gentleman, by contrast, the Chevalier de Saint-George was a master swordsman, a Colonel in the French Army, and black! His work is rarely performed today, but his Sinfonia Concertante is a real gem, and marks out the concert as one not to be missed.
So, whether you’re a grizzled veteran of Ardee Baroque or someone considering taking the plunge for the first time, there’s plenty of variety and quality in this year’s programme. Details can be found on www.createlouth.ie, and tickets can be purchased during office hours at the Council Offices on the Fair Green, and by ringing the Box Office at 087 6115679.
[issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml backgroundcolor=000000 showflipbtn=true documentid=111106150751-e146104de65b4eeab45a3050c0f0c347 docname=ab_dl_11 username=exquinn loadinginfotext=Ardee%20Baroque%202011 showhtmllink=true tag=ardee width=600 height=159 unit=px]