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MICHAEL DERVAN

Various performers, Louth Contemporary Music Society LCMS 1001 ****

Louth Contemporary Music Society is one of the most adventurous music promoters in Ireland. It also stretches its boundaries in the recording studio as well as in concert. The centre of gravity on this latest disc lies to the East. Dimitri Yanov-Yanovski and Polina Nadarejshvili are from Uzbekistan, Zurab Nadarejshvili from Georgia, Arvo Pärt from Estonia, and Alexandra Vrebalov from Serbia. And the one Englishman, John Tavener, has been heavily influenced by the music of the Orthodox Church, and, on Samaveda , Indian Saman chant. Reflective calm is the dominanting characteristc, sometimes conveying a mode and mood that can seem almost frozen, memories locked and looping, distilled for minutest inspection. There are strong performances from a line-up that includes the Carducci Quartet, the Dublin Guitar Quartet, soprano Patricia Rozario and pianist Michael McHale. See louthcms.org/path

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2010/1022/1224281655429.html

‘ Fields of Blue and White ‘ is Michael Holohan’s first full-length CD. The eminent Irish pianists John O’ Conor and Therese Fahy will focus on a wide range of the composer’s piano music. The recital and launch will include works which have been commissioned by The National Concert Hall and the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition. The pianists will also perform piano duets and a number of pieces by Chopin, commemorating the 200th  Anniversary of the Polish composer’s birth.This concert, which is being presented by Droichead Arts Centre is also funded by the Louth County Council and the Drogheda Borough Council. An event not to be missed!

Date:  1 June 2010

Time:   8pm

Venue: St Peter’s Church of Ireland, Drogheda

Tickets : 20 euro. (Ticket price includes a complimentary CD).

Biographies

Michael Holohan
Michael Holohan was born in Dublin in 1956 and has lived in Drogheda for the past twenty seven years, close to the Prehistoric and Early Irish Christian sites of the Boyne Valley which have been a constant source of inspiration to him as a composer. He studied music in Ireland and France. He has won numerous prizes for his compositions and his music has been performed and broadcast both in Ireland and abroad. In 1999 he was elected to Aosdana, Ireland’s state- sponsored academy of creative artists.

Therese Fahy
Therese Fahy is a Professor of Piano and Director of Chamber music at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. A former student of John O’ Conor she is now one of Ireland’s foremost pianists and enjoys an active performing career both in Europe and the USA. She has an affinity with French music and  has been critically acclaimed for her performances of the piano music of Debussy, Ravel and particularly the great 20th Century French composer, Olivier Messiaen.

John O’Conor
The Irish pianist John O ‘ Conor has earned a worldwide reputation as a masterful interpreter of the Classic and early- Romantic repetoires. In 1973 he was unanimously awarded First prize at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and in 1975 he won First Prize at the Bosendorfer Competition. He premiered Michael Holohan’s ’ Listoke Preludes’  in Drogheda  in 2002 and also performed  his piano piece  ’Monaincha’  in Bejing. He has toured the world in recital and concerto appearances and makes regular visits to Europe, Japan, Korea and China. He has been decorated by both the French and Austrian Governments for his services to music.

Next week, exactly 100 years on, composer Michael Holohan will commemorating the  moment with a new piece of music theatre http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1211/1224260495694.htm

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.