Sir, - Your issue of January 30th carried a review by Michael Dervan of the recent issue on the Naxos/Marco Polo label of my third and fourth symphonies performed by our National Symphony Orchestra under Proinnsias O Duinn.
Apart from giving no acknowledgement to the international standards of the performers and the producer, Chris Craker, or the importance of the collaboration between the Arts Council, RTE, and Naxos in undertaking their Irish Composer Series, Mr Dervan seeks to trivialise the fourth symphony by dismissing it as a "patchwork" piece. I note with some satisfaction that even he sees merit in the other work.
I fully acknowledge that Mr Dervan's opinion is as valuable as anybody else's, but as I am concerned that sales of this CD might be affected by the comment in your paper, I would ask you to give me space to point out that his is a minority opinion and out of step with all other Irish press comment on the work when it was premiered by the same performers in 1992. To give a few quotes:
The Irish Times review (not by Mr Dervan): "The writing is generally well crafted, especially in its orchestration and range of sonorities. . . The material is strongly, even forcefully characterised. . . By its very nature such material needs to be sustained over large spans, and when running with one dominant idea, as in the opening of the first movement and parts of the third, the symphony does this effectively."
Under the headline "A Major New Symphony", another reviewer completed a favourable notice as follows: "It is essential that further performances are soon programmed as it appears on first hearing to be a major contribution to symphonic composition."
Another referred to the fourth symphony as follows: "There is a personal brilliance in Kinsella's handling of material of which fleeting flurries of upward spiralling motion and swirling woodwind are fine examples. Unbridled energy is another feature of the score and this reaches a peak in the pressing belligerence of the Ulster scherzo where double timpani emphasise a clash of ideas. . . the Leinster finale. . . makes a fitting and triumphant conclusion to this well-founded RTE commission." - Yours, etc.,
John Kinsella,
Marley Rise, Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.