Fashion victim!

Clinker

Did you see the piece about Peter Sweeney in yesterday's Irish Times magazine? Is there help available for this poor man?

Doshea3

Ah, leave Peter alone. He's always talking about clothes, but sure we all have our little things. And plus, it was very clever publicity for his concert—it was one of the largest crowds they've got at Dun Laoghaire in a while.

Clinker

It was a big crowd, though they didn't look the type to be swayed by that kind of thing. I'd say the average age was pensionable: your chamber music age range, even older than your symphony concert age range! Still, it probably gave some people a nudge, even if they weren't interested in high fashion!

Doshea3

True, but there were also a good contingent of younger people (admittedly probably all people like us!).

Where were you sitting, Clinker? And what did you think of the performance?

Clinker

Doshea3 wrote: »

True, but there were also a good contingent of younger people (admittedly probably all people like us!).

Where were you sitting, Clinker? And what did you think of the performance?

I was sitting in the front area (facing the organ). I'm not a big Händel fan, and I'm afraid that the two pieces by him (O qualis de coelo sonus and the Gloria) didn't convert me, though they were pleasant enough. I was interested to hear how well Richard Sweeney's chittarone penetrated the texture and supported the sound. They often disappear on record.

In the Bach and Bach/Ernst I thought Peter Sweeney's playing was rather untidy in the faster parts, though at least the great Passacaglia came through pretty well.

I notice that Michael Dungan says in today's Irish Times that `no texts or translations were provided, nor were there any printed or spoken introductions to any of the works'. Was he there? I got texts and translations, and Peter Sweeney did introduce the Gloria, though mainly by way of saying that Michael Dervan had pointed out that it was not the first Dublin performance of the newly-rediscovered Gloria, but the fourth. Peter Sweeney remarked that he had been `out of the loop' for a few years. What did he mean? Had he been too busy in Brown Thomas and Harvey Nichols?

Where were you sitting, Doshea? And what did you think of the performance?

Doshea3

I was sitting about half-way down that same one, probably just a bit behind you.

I liked the performance overall. I liked the Passacaglia rather more than the concerto (though I think the reed stops on that organ are utterly vile), and I thought the first cantata was a bit messy. The Gloria was mostly good though.

Peter's been out of the loop because he was ill for some time and disappeared from the scene until fairly recently while he was recovering.

Funny, you never know who's sitting near you at these things! You may well have been sitting just in front of me. If you were near a bloke with a beard carrying a hat that was me.

Clinker

I'm sorry to hear that Peter Sweeney was unwell: I seem very unsympathetic now!

I was sitting about half-way back and wearing a beard too! We might have been within whispering distance (no hat though, that would have been spooky!).

Do you know anything about how S. Michael's came to be equipped with a neo-baroque organ when it was rebuilt? Is it a particularly good organ compared to others in Dublin, or why is it the one with its own festival?

Doshea3

Don't worry, I'm sure Peter would have laughed at the suggestion that he was out of the loop due to buying clothes. (Which may be partly true!)

Ah, another beardy. I was sitting on the lefthandside of the pews two from the end, with two young lady friends to my right. (That makes me sound like some sort of pimp—beard, hat and now girls!)

St Michael's is a peculiar one. I think Gerard Gillen was consultant to the project, and at the time neo-baroque organs were very fashionable, and so it was a good opportunity to make a unique installation. It's the uniqueness of the organ that has led to the popularity of the recital series, I think. It's not a remarkable organ or a remarkable church by any means (in fact, the dour church building is a perfect match for those vicious mixture stops and horrendously raspy reeds), but I would say that the organ is very German, and so is a perfect instrument on which to hear the great German masters played. Most of the big organs in this country are very English or Hiberno-English (!) in character (and most parish churches have Conachers, Bensons or Telfords), with woofy reeds, airy flutes, characterless diapasons and shimmery strings, and so the odd deviation from the prevailing trend is obviously going to be a curiosity—particularly the organ of Dun Laoghaire, which to my mind is quite uncompromisingly Germanic and no-nonsense.