FIELDS OF BLUE AND WHITE
A recital of original music for piano and the launch of local composer Michael Holohan’s CD ‘Fields of Blue and White’ was held in the National Concert Hall Dublin on 6 November 2009.
Works by Michael Holohan to include Monaincha, Carving the High Cross, The Listoke Preludes and other piano pieces. Fields of Blue and White is Michael Holohan’s first full-length CD performed by the eminent pianist Thérèse Fahy. The cd includes works which have been commissioned by the National Concert Hall and the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition.
Review of performance
The Irish Times – Monday, November 9, 2009
Thérèse Fahy (piano)
ANDREW JOHNSTONE
NCH John Field Room, Dublin THIS RECITAL marked the launch of, and consisted of music from, Thérèse Fahy’s new CD of works by Michael Holohan, Fields of Blue and White . Sampling Holohan’s output over more than 30 years, the CD places particular emphasis on his favourite genre, the pictorial miniature.
Its two longest tracks, Monaincha (2002) and Carving the High Cross (2006, revised 2009) were included in Fahy’s live programme, together with the three medium sized Listoke Preludes (2000, revised 2009) and four items of between two and three minutes’ duration.
The intuitive Irishness of Holohan’s work recalls the musical nationalism particularly of Grieg, for whom the folkloric application of cosmopolitan technique worked best on a small scale. It’s thus in the most compact sketch, rather than on a wider and more expressionistic canvas, that Holohan’s fusion of styles is at its most convincing.
By a River (1985) generates a sense of calculated accessibility; there are pleasingly harmonic touches to Aoise (1988) and Ommagio (1996), while Capranica (2008), a distant nocturnal image of the Italian town, articulates itself largely without the need for cadential stereotypes.
While the twisted gothic imagery of Monaincha and Carving the High Cross retained its rough-hewn, native aspects, in The Listoke Preludes Fahy’s advocacy fully brought out a thoughtful counterpoint of structure and texture.
