As it enters its home stretch, the 2016 centenary programme continues to deliver inspired cultural happenings: enter Composing the Island, which runs from 7-25 September at Dublin's National Concert Hall, presenting 29 concerts of orchestral, choral, instrumental, song and chamber music by Irish composers written between 1916 and 2016.
Over the course of the festival, almost 200 works by some 90 different homegrown composers will be performed, with performances recorded for future broadcast on RTÉ. Add to that additional concerts of choral, chamber, song, mixed ensembles and instrumental music recitals, plus a choice series of supporting talks and related events.
How this music developed, and the times and circumstances in which it was written will unfold over the three weeks of performances, which include 6 major orchestral concerts performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Audiences will encounter music by familiar names – such as Harty, Boydell, Ó Riada and Barry - alongside work from lesser-known yet significant figures like Rhoda Coghill, Ina Boyle and many confident contemporary voices.
The extended line-up includes many of Ireland’s leading contemporary performers: Crash Ensemble (presenting an epic new music marathon), Chamber Choir Ireland, Concorde, Vanbrugh Quartet, Fidelio Trio, Hugh Tinney, and Robin Tritschler.
Composing The Island Highlights include:
-The earliest orchestral piece, an Irish Rhapsody from 1914 by Charles Villiers Stanford, friend of Brahms and Offenbach, teacher of Vaughan Williams and Holst.
-The newest orchestral composition, c, commissioned by RTÉ especially for Composing the Island from Birmingham-based Dubliner Andrew Hamilton
-A new work by Ian Wilson, exploring the human and personal aspects of 1916 through the last words of the captured leaders of the Rising.
-Additional world premieres by Ronan Guilfoyle, Philip Hammond, Stephen McNeff and Eoghan Desmond.
-Striking recent orchestral works including Donnacha Dennehy’s Crane with its title reflecting that symbol of the construction boom of Celtic Tiger Ireland; and Stephen Gardner’s NEVER…NEVER…NEVER - drawing its title from a famous Ian Paisley speech protesting against the signing of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.
-‘Here and Now’: 21st century music in the Crash Ensemble new music marathon.
-RTÉ Cór na nÓg presenting music written especially for children’s voices since 1980
-A festival finale with the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in a choral concert that brings Composing the Island back full circle, with two works from the 1920s by now largely forgotten figures, Norman Hay and Rhoda Coghill.
View the Composing The Island programme in full here.
