I spent an incredible week on Valentia Island off the coast of Co. Kerry this summer preparing for this concert as part of the Chamber Music on Valentia Festival. Although the performances were devised for streaming due to Covid-19, all rehearsals and recordings took place on the idyllic Island itself.
The island is a magical and ancient place with dinosaur fossils rubbing shoulders, an enormous slate quarry and the two hundred year old botanical gardens of Glanleam House among the treasures to explore.
The concert features music collected in County Kerry and arranged by composer Ernest Moeran who himself spent a lot of time on the Island and only set these songs in the last year of his life, despite having collected them many years earlier.
You will also hear songs from Jonathan Nangle, the featured composer of this year’s festival and the Stanford Piano Quartet No.1 in F major.
In these performances, I am accompanied by the festival’s Artistic Director Mary Dullea on piano.
Programme
Ernest Moeran: Songs from County Kerry for voice and piano
- The Dawning of the Day; 2. The Roving Dingle Boy; 3. The Lost Lover
Jonathan Nangle: Snáth for soprano and piano as Thionscadal na nAmhrán Ealaíne Gaeilge/Irish Art Song Project (2019)
- An Croí; 2. Snáth; 3. Chugat
Stanford: Piano Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 15
- Allegro con brio; 2. Scherzo: Allegro con vivace; 3. Poco adagio; 4. Finale: Allegro con brio
Daire Halpin - Soprano 