Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Contributor

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor.

Yevgeny Sudbin: ‘As soon as I sit down, start playing, start trying things, I find the right texture’

The Russia-born British pianist is performing three concerts at New Ross Piano Festival this weekend. He talks about the music he’ll be playing

Ailís Ní Ríain: The Last Time I Died - Independent, exploratory and quirky

The title of this album of compositions for toy piano refers to the composer’s sixth year of sobriety

András Keller: ‘These were people with young families. Their electricity was switched off. There was no money’

The conductor has had to get his orchestra, the Concerto Budapest Symphony, through punishing times. It’s just one of the unexpected twists in his life

‘My schedule is Tosca, Tosca, Tosca, Aida, Tosca, Tosca’: Svetlana Kasyan on her signature role

The Bolshoi-trained singer is about to make her Irish debut, starring as Puccini’s character at the Grand Opera House in Belfast

Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss: A thoughtful, extraordinarily detailed performance of Schubert piano duets

Whyte Recital Hall, the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s new venue, has a puzzling acoustic on its opening night

Stephen Hough: ‘So many concert halls are built and don’t sound good, and they’ve had millions spent on them’

The mesmerising English pianist, who plays this month at Dublin’s new Whyte Recital Hall, on the importance of a venue

John Gilhooly: ‘I stand in the foyer every night. You learn a lot by just chatting to your public’

The Irishman who runs Wigmore Hall, one of the world’s great concert venues, is bringing a roster of classical stars to Dublin’s new recital hall

Barry Douglas review: When he gets the bit between his teeth he’s one of the most exciting pianists around

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2023: There was a sense of a raw force of nature about Douglas’s recital at St Canice’s Cathedral on Monday

Carducci String Quartet: Kilkenny Arts Festival audience clearly appreciates this passionate, emotionally engaged playing

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2023: In a chalk-and-cheese programme, the players’ fondness for fullness and heartiness of tone is a little too strongly in evidence

Camerata Kilkenny: Gorgeous tones and mesmerising command in a Bach-dominated programme

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2023: The group’s harpsichordist, Malcolm Proud, featured as a young musician at the first festival, back in 1974

‘The only way out is a divorce!’: Carducci String Quartet on being married to music and each other

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2023: Couples might find it hard to work and live together. The two pairs of Carducci musicians cannot imagine it any other way

West Cork Chamber Music Festival: women’s work and a remarkable Beethoven

This year’s programme in Bantry focused on women composers, and plans were also revealed for a new venue to house the town’s three festivals

‘It was clear I wanted to play first violin. When you are leader you can really create energy’

West Cork Chamber Music Festival: What’s the difference between playing first and second violin in a string quartet? Two musicians explain

Folks’ Music: Terry Riley would love this trad take on In C every bit as much as the audience did

Louth Contemporary Music Society’s engaging weekend festival also featured the Esposito Quartet, Sigma Project and Explore Ensemble

Laurence Crane: ‘I try to find new ways of making form and structure’

The English composer’s String Quartet No 2, which is about to be premiered in Ireland, turns familiar material into unusual shapes