This is a very engaging collection of rather sophisticated music for strings by contemporary Irish composers. There is nothing particularly “Irish” about most of this music (Frank Corcoran’s Mikrokosmoi is the one exception); indeed, most of the pieces seem reflective of much string writing coming out of Europe, especially from Scandinavia, during the past two decades. Still, for all that, the music offers substantial originality among the more common references. The specter of Alfred Schnittke haunts the background of Raymond Deane’s flirtatious Dekatriad which employs several scales at once: diatonic major, diatonic minor, chromatic, whole tone, and pentatonic. “Je goute le jeu …” by Fergus Johnston is a Bergian meditation on an eight-note cell and will sporadically remind some listeners of Ligeti or Lutoslawski–or, for the less informed, air raid sirens.
More harmonically enhanced is John Buckley’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra. Those expecting jazz riffs because of the saxophone will be disappointed, but the instrument’s expressive potential is nonetheless adroitly explored in this work. Gerald Barry’s La Jalousie Taciturne is both angry and sullen by turns, perhaps the most acerbic work here. The program’s only neoromantic work is Frank Corcoran’s Mikrokosmoi (Scenes from My Receding PAST …). It’s filled with songlike moods and lyrical embellishments that take some of the sting out of the preceding work. The final composition is Strings A-Stray by Elaine Agnew, a fun little piece that incorporates several familiar Irish ditties, then nicely mangles them. The sound quality is excellent with sufficient depth to the bass lines to balance, not overwhelm, the upper string registers, and the Irish Chamber Orchestra plays with polish and panache and an agreeable familiarity. [10/16/2000]
