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Media Release

Scotland and the Baroque Voice added to the Ardee Baroque mix

With falling leaves and the return of open fires, this is the time of the year when music lovers turn their attention to the small, market town of Ardee in rural Louth, home to Ardee Baroque, one of Ireland’s smaller musical gems.

The only orchestral baroque music festival on the island of Ireland, Ardee Baroque continues its unique partnership with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Monica Huggett.  Decamping from their Dublin base to Ardee for a week prior to their performances, the Irish Baroque Orchestra rehearse and workshop with children from all of the schools in the town.  They also visit the local Older People’s Home to give recitals.  And that’s before they perform in public at all!  For this one week, Ardee becomes the Baroque capital of Ireland.

This year, Irish Baroque Orchestra will present two full concert programmes.  On Friday 13^th of November, the programme includes the Overture from Saul by Handel, Suite from Les Paladins by Rameau, Organ Concerto No 4 by Stanley, as well as works by De Lalande and Muffat.  This concert will take place in the Church of St. Mary’s (C of I) in Ardee, and soloist will be organist Malcolm Proud.  This will be followed by a concert in the same venue on the following Sunday evening, the 15^th,  featuring Purcell’s Fairy Queen Suite, Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op 6, as well as a selection of arias.

Joining the IBO for this second concert will be soprano Sadhbh Dennedy.  Sadhbh is a native of Blackrock, County Louth, and holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Dublin Institute of Technology, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Opera from the Royal College of Music in London.  She has sung with Scottish Opera, British Youth Opera, and in concerts in Ireland, the U.K., and France.  She is currently studying at the National Opera Studio in London.

As well as performing two concerts, members of the IBO will be in the Library in Ardee at 11am on Saturday morning for “Meet the Instruments”. Aimed at children of all ages, “Meet the Instruments” allows young people to listen to, and interact with the IBO players in a relaxed and informal setting.  Lasting around an hour, the players talk, explain and perform, with plenty of questions and suggestions from the children present.

Later that afternoon, at 2.30, the focus then moves to Smarmore Castle for a recital by baroque guitarist, Redmond O’Toole.  Through his unorthodox playing style and committed musicianship, Redmond O’Toole has emerged as one of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe.  He plays an 8-string “Brahms Guitar” in the cello position, connected to a special resonating box.  He has performed a number of important Concerti with Orchestra, and played first guitar in the critically acclaimed Dublin Guitar Quartet from its foundation until 2005.  Collaborations with the Chieftains, the Callino Quartet, and Cora Venus Lunny, to name just a few, has resulted in numerous television and radio appearances in the UK and Ireland.  Redmond O’Toole will be performing in the Blue Room of Smarmore Castle, a new and intimate venue for Ardee Baroque.  Smarmore Castle has the distinction of being one of the longest continuously-inhabited castles in Ireland, with part of the keep dating back to 1320.  The Blue Room, the venue for Redmond O’Toole’s recital is part of an eighteenth century addition, and will provide a stunning and unusual backdrop for the music of Bach and Scarlatti.

Collon Church provides the venue for Saturday evening’s concert where the Dunedin Consort make their Republic of Ireland debut.  Winners of the 2008 Midem Baroque Award and the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Vocal Album for their recording of Handel’s ‘Dublin’ Messiah (Linn CKD 285), the Dunedin Consort, under the combined Artistic Direction of John Butt, Susan Hamilton and Philip Hobbs, have performed throughout Scotland and Europe.

The Consort has appeared at festivals in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and the Channel Islands as well as at Edinburgh International Festival. It has worked in collaboration with ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia 21, Scottish Ensemble, Mr. McFall’s Chamber, Paragon Ensemble, Florilegium, La Serenissima and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, has appeared on the major BBC television channels, and been broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Scotland.

For their inaugural concert in this part of the world, Dunedin Consort will perform a programme entitled “Bach’s Motets and his Forefathers”.  J.S. Bach’s motets were seen as the pinnacle of virtuosic and expressive choral writing even in the late eighteenth century – a time when most of the composer’s output was entirely forgotten. Mozart famously enthused about ‘Singet dem Herrn’ and avidly studied its vocal parts, on a visit to Leipzig in 1789. Bach himself seems to have taken particular pride in the genre, distinguished by its use of singers on every line of music, with texts exclusively from the Bible or the Lutheran chorale tradition. Motets seem to have been cherished by the Bach family, and Sebastian was largely responsible for preserving the works of his elder relatives (it is likely that he requested J.C. Bach’s ‘Lieber Herr Gott’ to be sung at his own funeral). By hearing three of his greatest motets side-by-side those of the previous generations we can hear how the family craft developed towards what later commentators saw as the type of art that somehow transcends its original context and use. All the works are superbly crafted, but we can also hear considerable expressive character in the music of the earlier Bachs, such as Bach’s cousin, Johann Michael (who was also his father-in-law) and particularly in the motets of Michael’s brother, Johann Christoph. He was the organist in Eisenach at the time Sebastian lived there, and his music sounds almost Romantic in its extraordinarily direct expression.

The high vaulted ceilings and collegiate style seating of Collon Church of Ireland will ensure that this most beautiful of choral music will be experienced in a suitable setting, making the night a memorable one.

Due to its inescapable history and evocative venues, Ardee Baroque is as much about the town as it is about the music.  And a very popular feature of each Ardee Baroque to date has been the lecture on some facet of the area’s heritage.  This year, the Ardee Baroque lecture will be given by Dr Dáithí O hÓgáin, Associate Professor, School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics, UCD.  The title of the lecture is “Fear Diadh – Who was he?”, and Dr O hÓgáin will explore the placenames and mythology of Ardee and mid Louth, with particular emphasis on the way mythology influences and shapes placenames.  He will present interesting ideas on the legend of Ferdia, and on the plausibility of whether the town’s name has, in fact, anything at all to do with Cúchulainn’s erstwhile best friend.  The iconoclastic lecture will take place at 2.30pm on Sunday 15^th at the Courtroom of Ardee Castle, and admission is free.

The Bohemian Centre in Ardee will be the venue for the launch of a very special book, simply entitled “Concert Band”.  This book of photography by acclaimed visual artist Jackie Nickerson focuses on Ardee Concert Band, one of the most vibrant and well-established arts organisations in Louth.  Commissioned by Louth County Council under the Per Cent for Art Scheme, “Concert Band” captures the people, activities and places of this Ardee institution.  It will be launched by Ceann Comhairle, Séamus Kirk, TD, and copies of the book will be on sale at the launch, which will take place at 5pm on Sunday afternoon.

Ardee Baroque 2009 finishes up in style at 7.00pm at St. Mary’s, Ardee, with the second concert of the Irish Baroque Orchestra.  And while the audience will turn out into an undoubtedly cold night after the performance, they will have been warmed by a weekend of exhilarating music, stimulating ideas, and new experiences.  Ardee Baroque will have weaved its magic once again.

Ardee Baroque is an initiative of Louth County Council, and is supported by Fáilte Ireland, the Arts Council, Ardee Town Council, and local traders.  Ardee Baroque is managed by a Festival Board, chaired by Mary Capplis.

For Box Office, contact Nicola on 087 6115679, or call into Ardee Town Council Offices on the Fair Green, Ardee.

Brian Harten,

County Arts Officer,

Louth County Council – 041 – 6853234 – brian.harten@louthcoco.ie

Programme
Bach: Sonata No1 in G minor for unaccompanied violin BWV1001
Bach: Prelude Fugue and Allegro BWV 998
Scarlatti: Sonata in E major K380
Scarlatti:Sonata in D minor K213
Scarlatti:Sonata in A major K322

Redmond O’Toole will give a recital at 3pm on Saturday 14. November 2009 in Smarmore Castle . Through his unorthodox playing style and committed musicianship, Redmond O’Toole has emerged as one of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe.  He plays an 8-string “Brahms Guitar” in the cello position, connected to a special resonating box.  He has performed a number of important Concerti with Orchestra, and played first guitar in the critically acclaimed Dublin Guitar Quartet from its foundation until 2005.  Collaborations with the Chieftains, the Callino Quartet, and Cora Venus Lunny, to name just a few, has resulted in numerous television and radio appearances in the UK and Ireland.  Redmond O’Toole will be performing in the Blue Room of Smarmore Castle, a new and intimate venue for Ardee Baroque.  Smarmore Castle has the distinction of being one of the longest continuously-inhabited castles in Ireland, with part of the keep dating back to 1320.  The Blue Room, the venue for Redmond O’Toole’s recital is part of an eighteenth century addition, and will provide a stunning and unusual backdrop for the music of Bach and Scarlatti.

Redmond O’Toole
Redmond O’Toole is the 2009 National Concert Hall’s “Rising Star” and has been described as on of the most innovative and exciting young guitarists in Europe. His programmes range from renaissance to contemporary works. He was the first to adapt to Paul Galbraith’s newly invented Brahms guitar, an 8-stringed guitar played in the position of a cello. Recent engagements have seen Redmond tour Spain as a special guest with the Chieftains, a BBC recording as soloist with the BBC Ulster Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Montgomery and a performance with the acclaimed Dutch soprano Charlotte Riedjik at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Bantry. He performs regularly with the Chieftains and in duo with violinist Elizabeth Cooney.

Redmond has released two CDs with German Company Bornheim Klassik and will release a new CD with the Californian label VGO Recordings next year. He is the only Irish guitarist to have gained access to the famed Segovia class at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy where he studied with Oscar Ghiglia (former Assistant to Andres Segovia) over four years under scholarship. In 2003 he was the winner of the inaugural RDS music bursary, Ireland’s largest music prize. His main teachers were John Feeley, Paul Galbraith, Nigel North, and Oscar Ghiglia.

Please note that Smarmore Castle is not suitable for those with impaired mobility.

Tickets €10
For Box Office, contact Nicola on 087 6115679, or call into Ardee Town Council Offices on the Fair Green, Ardee.