New Ross Piano Festival

by Mike Rodio

On Sunday, September 26, I made the long trek to the New Ross Piano Festival in New Ross, a quaint and quiet town on the River Barrow in County Wexford.  The bus trip--it would be more appropriate to call it a voyage--wound through some beautiful countryside, which provided an airy break from Dublin's more metropolitan confines. 

The Piano Festival, which is in reality a series of performances throughout the weekend, featured some of the best pianists in Europe, including Finghin Collins, a dramatic Irish pianist and local favorite.  The performances were held at St. Mary's Church, an early nineteenth-century church that provided an ideal venue.  Interestingly, the church commands the New Ross hillside along the 12th-century ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, which reminded the visitors that even the "classical" styling of the music played inside are quite recent compared to the island's ancient history. 

While I was easily the youngest person in the audience by probably around twenty years, it made for plenty of interesting conversation ("An American? You've come quite a long way then, yes? Have some tea!").  One particular Irish gentleman was especially excited to hear that I've been studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.  He had become a banker after completing his university studies, but kept up his piano work, and was happy to hear that young people are still continuing the tradition of classical piano studies.

The performances were, in the very best sense of the word, intriguing.  With all due deference to the canon of classics, the best pieces get stale after so much exposure.  Finghin Collins played Bach with a histrionic style that performers rarely dare to try, but his playing was so musical that critics were remarkably silent.  My favorite piece, however, was Abdel Rahman el Bacha's performance of Chopin's Concerto no. 2, backed by the Renoir Quartet. 

Yes, you read that correctly.  The Renoir Quartet.  St. Mary's simply isn't big enough to house an entire orchestra, so the Renoir Quartet filled in an arrangement of the Concerto, which is light on the horns and features almost no percussion.  The arrangement was so well done, and the performance so musical, that I left the concert wondering why anyone had ever performed it otherwise.  The second movement, in particular, was so harrowingly tender that I saw a few tears glitter in the audience.

Dublin is fantastic.  But away from the touristy hustle and bustle of Grafton Street and into the Irish countryside, the island's hidden gems lie waiting for a careful eye and a welcoming ear.  The New Ross Piano Festival, tucked away in a church on the hill, was a typically beautiful--and most welcome--find.