Banish January blues Amongst Friends

Date Published: 06-Jan-2011

Music for Galway presents its annual antidote to the bleakness of January in the form of a heart-warming weekend of great chamber music which will run from Friday, January 21 to Sunday, January 23 at the city’s Town Hall Theatre.

The theme of this year’s festival is Amongst Friends, reflecting the intimate setting for which chamber music was and is written and performed.

It is also a celebration of the friendships made among musicians as they come together to play, and last but not least, of the bond created through people’s communal experience of listening to music.

At the core of the programme is Galway’s Ensemble in Residence, ConTempo Quartet, who will be joined by the celebrated Irish pianist and conductor Barry Douglas for concerts on Friday and Saturday night at 8pm.

Gems of chamber music written by Brahms, Schubert and Dvo?ák for string quartet, piano solo and piano quintet will feature in these two concerts. Then, on Saturday at 2pm audiences will get a chance to experience Barry Douglas in his role as mentor when he leads a public master class with local piano students.

The festival’s final concert on Sunday at 3pm will open with Mendelssohn’s Capriccio for string quartet. After that Romanian cellist Eugen Mantu will perform one of his favourite pieces for solo cello, Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1, which Eugen studied under the renowned Yo-Yo Ma.

For more of this preview see page 27 of this week’s Tribunes.