Irish Times writers review a variety of events.

Cathal Breslin (piano)
NCH, Dublin
Michael Dervan

Beethoven - Sonata in A flat Op 110. Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit. Rachmaninov - Corelli Variations. John McNamara - Riff I. Chopin - Ballade No 1. Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No 12.

The Derry pianist Cathal Breslin chose a daunting programme for his Rising Star 2005 recital at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday. He walked on stage to play it with an air of real confidence and anticipatory pleasure, and he played it with a big heart.

The strength of his playing lies in his ability to generate strongly characterised musical gesture. It's led him to a useful and sometimes fine command of pianistic colour.

He knows how to let his hair down and he likes to quicken his audience's pulse. Admittedly he sometimes loses his own balance in the process, and this week he seemed to worry both himself and his listeners too often for comfort in the first half of the evening.

The major limitation was almost a corollary of his strength. Too many of his calculated musical gestures went wide of their target.

This created moments where musical expression became indistinct, caused some problems of large-scale integration, and limited the coherence of the narrative in Chopin's Ballade No. 1 and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12.

Yet underneath everything there was the sense of an engaging musical personality, and nowhere was this more evident than in the evening's new work, Riff I, by John McNamara, winner of the NCH's Composers' Competition.

McNamara's writing here shows a dog-worrying-a-bone kind of persistence, working its way with étude-like concentration from one end of the keyboard to the other.

Breslin played it with a selfless mechanistic resilience that seemed totally sympathetic to the composer's intentions.

Blood Brothers
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
Gerry Colgan

Willy Russell, poet-playwright of Liverpool's mean streets, has a distinct flair for creating oppressed but strong women. His musical, Blood Brothers, is a splendid example of his talents in full spate, a drama that beguiles intellect and ear for almost three hours of pleasure.

In this production, Rebecca Storm returns as Mrs Johnstone, deserted wife and mother of many who, in the allegorical meaning of one of her songs, goes dancing again, to be rewarded with a pregnancy of twin boys. She is forced, by poverty and bureaucracy, to give one of them away to her childless employer, who promptly sacks her. Later, the posh woman moves away, to avoid all contact.

But the Johnstone family are relocated from their slum to a new country estate, and the boys, now just eight, meet again, and we follow them through puberty and young manhood. At 18, Mickey gets a job in a factory, and a pregnant wife, while Eddie goes to university. But Mickey loses his job, becomes involved in a crime and goes to prison; no more dancing. It ends in cathartic tragedy.

The story stills packs an emotional punch, from the hilarious scenes with the young boys and their friends to the darkening future that envelops them. It is replete with incidents that tug at the heartstrings, and with songs that move it through its many moods. The Marilyn Monroe song is well known, but others such as Easy Terms - a commentary on life in a profit-making society - and the rousing Bright New Day, which ends the first half, are equally memorable.

Rebecca Storm is brilliant again, Sean Jones as Mickey is a triumph, Drew Ashton is a persuasive Eddie and Linzi Matthews is fine as Eddie's child-wife.

Keith Jones as the singing narrator strings it all together with authority. Even for those who have seen it before, this production will reward a visit.

Blood Brothers runs until March 19th