25 th & 27.10.2005 - Ardee Baroque Festival, Ardee

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The Irish Times
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Andrew Jonstone
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O'Connor, IBO/Wallfisch

Cross-over music combining classical and traditional elements is an established genre. But Fiddler Gerry O'Connor, violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch and the Irish Baroque Orchestra cast it in a completely new light.

In a concert pursuing the second Ardee Baroque Festival's theme of border crossings, neither side had to concede and vitality to the other. For both, vibrato is out, ornamentation is in, and rhythm - deriving from a shared heritage of dance - is infectious.

Wallfisch led the orchestra in cutting performances of two of the 18 th century's wackier products. Telemann's suite Don Quixote , proved every bit as entertaining as its literary original, while Duarnte's concerto La Pazzia (The Madness) was a Sterne-like succession of false starts and crazy scenes.

Between these works, O'Connor paralleled the orchestra's decisive affects in three sets of dance and slow airs. He then joined them for Ardee Dances, a five-movement suite for fiddle, and baroque strings specially composed for the festival by Rachel Holstead.

Despite clear-cut phrasing and the odd hint of a jig or a reel, this is essentially a cosmopolitan work that steers well clear of the portentous nationalism, derivative neo-classicism or shallow commercialism that could so easily have characterised it. In its slightly chromatic environment, both fiddler and period ensemble hold equal status as guests.

The concert ended with the 4 th Brandenberg Concerto. Though the strings' intense gesturing at times outweighed the lithe recorder playing of Laoise O'Brien and Kate Hearne, this was an altogether more concentrated and hearty account than the IBO's last, under Joshua Rifkin in 2003.

While counterpoint rather than folksong is the essence of the medium, the performance was true to the national styles and dance spirit underlying the music. It was a reminder that the ultimate cross-over composer is Bach himself.
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PLAYERS

Violin 1: Libby Wallfisch, Anita Vedres, Hannah Tibell, Clodagh Vedres, Emma Parker

Violin 2: Claire Duff, Aoife Ni Dhurnain, Brona Cahill, Katarina Bengston

Violas: Alfonso Leal del Ojo, Iñigo Aranzasti

Traditional Fiddle: Gerry O'Connor

Cellos: Jonathan Byers (Continuo), Kate Hearn

Bass: Malachy Robinson

Harpsichord: Ian Pritchard

Theorbo: Richard Sweeney

Recorders: Loise O'Brien, Kate Hearn