Dekatriad - Raymond Deane
6 Irische Mikrokosmoi - Frank Corcoran
"Je goute le jeu . . ." - Fergus Johnston
La Jalousie Taciturne - Gerald Barry
This year's Bank of Ireland "Mostly Modern" series ended with a showcase for Irish music. Last Thursday lunchtime, in the bank's arts centre in Foster Place, the Irish Chamber Orchestra played four pieces for strings, all commissioned by the ICO from Irish composers over the last three years or so.
The styles of the four pieces - Raymond Deane's Deka triad for Thirteen Solo Strings, Frank Corcoran's 6 Irische Mikrokosmoi, Fergus Johnston's "Je goute le jeu . . ." and Gerald Barry's La Jalousie Taciturne - are utterly different; but all four show flair with idiomatic string writing, and offer plenty for musicians to get stuck into. All of them are to some extent indebted to traditions, in techniques or material or both; but none of them is remotely derivative.
There were many pleasures in this concert: confident and well-characterised playing, enormous compositional variety, and smiles on the platform at negotiating a tough corner or at just enjoying sound. The ICO knows these pieces well, and despite the venue's merciless acoustic - anything ragged shows - the performances had certainty in technique and interpretation.
The "Mostly Modern" series is not yet impeccable. But this year's was by far the best in its standards of performances and music, and in its inter nationality. This concert, above all the others, offered the hope that even in classical music the Celtic Tiger is beginning to roar.