ONE Saturday night during the Big Snow before Christmas I was sitting in the RDS Concert Hall at a performance of Handel's Messiahwhen I found myself thinking about the Manchester City soccer star Mario Balotelli.
It’s not that the performance, by the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir failed to engage the attention. On the contrary, both orchestra and choir were vibrant and the occasion was especially memorable for the radiant singing of the mezzo-soprano Anne Marie Gibbons who, although heavily pregnant, was standing in at short notice for an indisposed German soloist. But the mind can stray, even at the most enthralling moments, and sometimes even because of them. On this occasion, I was struck – not for the first time – by the obvious pleasure that the ICO players took in their music-making and how this in turn enhanced the audience’s enjoyment. This led me to wonder, by contrast, about the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra – some of whose members regularly stand to endure post-concert applause with slumped shoulders and hangdog expressions, looking as though they have just been told their latest performance was their last. It tends to take the shine off the paying customers’ enjoyment, however excellent the music.
Which is why I thought of Balotelli, who is similarly reluctant to celebrate a score and has consequently not yet been taken to the hearts of Manchester City supporters despite his obvious talent and his eye for goal. The club’s manager, Roberto Mancini, recently remarked – jokingly, I trust – that he sometimes felt like punching Balotelli on account of his doleful demeanour. Mancini was speaking shortly after the striker had scored his first hat-trick in English football. The player managed only a couple of half-hearted smiles and explained afterwards that he does not celebrate like other players because he regards scoring as part of his job. It’s a reasonable point, but these days big-time soccer is very definitely show business and the fans, just like music-lovers, expect the performers to reciprocate their applause.
To be fair to Balotelli, the lad has issues, as they say. His biological parents, who are Ghanaian, entrusted him to foster parents in Italy when he was three and it was not easy growing up both black and Italian. When playing in the Italian league, he was frequently the target of racist chants such as “Black Italians do not exist”. I cannot say for sure if there is any remotely comparable extenuation for the gloomier members of the NSO. Perhaps they would echo Balotelli’s line: “Sometimes I don’t smile outwardly but I am smiling inside”. Lest there be any doubt on the matter, I don’t feel like punching any of them; I just wish they would lighten up.
As for the ladies and gentlemen of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, they are preparing to light up the RDS Concert Hall once more on Saturday, February 12th with a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons directed by the Finnish violin soloist Pekka Kuusisto. (The programme, which also includes the O’Carolan Suite in Baroque Style by Ireland’s TC Kelly and Sketches from Folkscenes, by Finland’s Timo Alakotila, will have prior outings at UCH Limerick on February 10th and City Hall Waterford on February 11th. Details at www.irishchamberorchestra.info). At the age of 19, Kuusisto became the first Finn to win his country’s prestigious Sibelius Prize for violinists, in 1995. Since then he has repeatedly attracted adjectives such as “unpredictable”, “controversial”, “inspiring” and “spontaneous”, playing jazz, folk, hip-hop and electronic music as well as bringing his own edgy insights to the classical repertoire. Perhaps he is on a one-man campaign to undermine Finland’s national stereotype. (Q: What’s the definition of a Finnish extrovert? A: He looks at your shoes instead of his own.)
The Guardian music critic Erica Jeal remarked: “Kuusisto’s ability to channel his musicianship wholeheartedly in so many directions, from folk to electronica, is one thing that makes him different from most of his colleagues. But more important is that he seems to take every piece he performs, however familiar, back to first principles, stripping any vestige of interpretative tradition and playing it as though he were hearing it for the first time. It’s as if nobody has ever told him how the violin is expected to sound.” He clearly has fun, which makes him a good partner for the ICO.
(PS: Anne Marie Gibbons gave birth early in January to a baby boy named Thomas. Mother and baby are doing fine.)