aic-logoThe Fishamble St. home of the Contemporary Music Centre (CMC) was the venue for the launch of a series of concerts presented by the Association of Irish Composers.  Over the coming months, the series will feature programmes of new Irish music selected by some of the top instrumenal peformers in the country. Asssocation secretary Peter Moran introduced the series, which will see new works from Irish composers brought to venues across the country. Soprano Elizabeth Hilliard and clarinettist Paul Roe were on hand to give a short performance, a taste of some of what will be on offer throughout.

After a wine reception in the CMCs libary it’s time to make the short trip to Christchurch Cathedral, where organist and composer David Bremner is to give a recital. Featuring a selection of contemporary organ works, Bremner’s programme gives a snapshot of the variety of music being composed for the instrument in Ireland today.

First up is Donnacha Dennehy’s Mad Avid Said, a lively, somewhat frenetic work. Ryan Molloy’s For a Lone Piper strikes a more pensive note, the long low tones of the organ filling the space, the piece exploring the sonorities of the Christchurch organ. Three Winter Haikus by Anna Murray follow, meditative and stately – on a cold winters evening, the music is fitting

Sweelinck Fractal, one of Bremners own compositions, is all about the sound of the organ – its timbre and textures taken advantage of throughout. Grainne Mulvey’s Streetorgsounds is one of the more experimental works of the evening. Mixing the sounds of the Dublin cityscape with Bremner’s playing, it is electrifying – evocative and suggestive, it is a beautifully realised work, snatches of buskers and voices coming over the speakers, the digital and the analogue combine to create a new sound-scape.

Somewhat more straightforward, but no less beautiful, is Your Light Illuminates Everything by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. Spare and spectral melodies open out gradually as the piece goes on, it is a lyrical and hopeful piece.

Derek Ball’s Sunday Morning plays as we come back from the interval break – consisting of a glass of wine in the cathedral’s crypt – before John McLachlans Here Be Dragons. McLachlans piece, dedicated to his newborn son when completed some years ago, is in two parts. The first energetic and jerky, youthful, the second more sombre and reflective, a meditation on advancing age.

Bach Est Mort, from Jonathan Nangle, slightly manic, recalls some of the great organ tradition in a modern way. Ben McHugh’s piece Eto likewise plays with tradition, this time in the form of a Russian folk song. He plays us a recording of the original first – before Bremner at the organ proceeds to deconstruct and then reassemble elements of the tune. Dennehy’s Mad Avid Said – a tribute to Irish organist David Adams – is reprised to round out the evenings performance, completing an eclectic and successful installment in this new concert series.