Heaney At 70 Music
RTÉ lyric fm (96-99fm), Monday 13th April, 5pm
The pieces receive their world premières on Easter Monday 13 April in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in a concert broadcast live on RTÉ lyric fm between 5pm and 5.30pm, presented by John Kelly. Before each piece Seamus Heaney reads the poem that inspired it: The Given Note for Holstead's piece of the same name, Fosterling for O'Connell's "Where should this music be?" and Anything Can Happen for Wilson's Across a clear blue sky. The broadcast concert goes out as part of lyric's Classic Drive programme (Mon-Fri, 4.30-7pm) and can be heard online on this site until 13 May.
RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet
The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet is one of Europe's most successful quartets, internationally recognised for its beauty of sound, clarity of texture and integrity of interpretation... more about the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet
Rachel Holstead
Heaney's poem The Given Note - about the Blasket fiddler who retrieves the mysterious Port na bPúcaí (The Fairies' Tune) from Inisvicillane - is the conceptual touchstone or fulcrum for this music. The poem's fiddler becomes a metaphor for the poet himself, for his seeing and hearing of the beauties, ordinary and extraordinary mysteries of the world... more about Rachel's The Given Note
Kevin O'Connell
A Derry snapshot from the mid-1970s. The city's main bookshop on Shipquay Street has its window display of new publications. Nothing unusual about this, except that there is only one book on display, North, in what seem a hundred duplications of the Faber pale-blue cover... more about Kevin's "Where should this music be?"
Ian Wilson
My work is titled Across a clear blue sky, inspired by Heaney's Anything Can Happen (also published under the title Horace and the Thunder). I've concentrated on the inspiration behind the writing of the poem - the 9/11 attacks - and have tried to respond to that event with the same kind of dignity that Heaney has done in his poem... more about Ian's Across a clear blue sky
