ON THE BILL The Far Flung Trio (From left, Dermot Dunne, Katherine Hunka and Malachy Robinson) will play Westport Chamber Music Festival’s late-night Saturday concert in Westport Town Hall Theatre. Pic: Marc O’Sullivan
This year’s Westport Festival of Chamber Music takes place from Friday, September 9, to Sunday, in three intimate, acoustic venues—Westport House, Westport Town Hall Theatre and Holy Trinity Church—each of which are ideal for the genre of music.
Hugh Tinney and Catherine Leonard, regarded as Ireland’s top violin-piano duo, will be joined by a star-studded line-up of musicians, including Russian violinist Liana Gourdjia and pianist Katya Apekisheva, French cellist Marc Coppey, Spanish clarinettist Jose Franch Ballester, English horn player Martin Owen and German violist Joachim Roewer, who is principal viola with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
Leonard and Tinney will open the festival in Westport House with a performance of an arresting work by Achill-born Raymond Deane. The musicians then join forces in different combinations of solo, duo, trio and quartet over the weekend, playing music by Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Dvorák, Chopin, Dohnanyi, Ravel, Poulenc and Dukas.
The programme will include three concerts on the Saturday and another on the Sunday. “Our Westport Festival has grown in the past three years into a cultural event that fits seamlessly into the Westport autumn, yet with an atmosphere and a following all of its own,” says festival director Tinney. “Everything plays its part in this collaborative sharing between musicians, audience members, venues, organisers and other local supporters.”
RTE Lyric fm will record the Friday and Saturday evening concerts for future broadcast on Lyric. These will also be offered to the European Broadcasting Union, significantly broadening the Festival’s audience. Paul Herriott of Lyric will introduce the Saturday 8pm concert.
For more details and a full festival programme, visit www.classicallinks.ie
