National Gallery, Dublin
27 January 2008

Presented by the Ireland Poland Cultural Foundation to coincide with the final day of the spectacular Paintings from Poland exhibition at the National Gallery, this concert was an attempt at the cross-fertilisation of cultures through music. Accessibility seemed to be the order of the day, both in terms of programming and concert structure. Three half-hour concerts replaced one prolonged concert, and all three concerts were presented bilingually in English and Polish.

Henryk Górecki, arguably Poland’s most popular composer, featured strongly on the programme, represented by four out of the five works presented. I felt, however, that this focus on Górecki did more harm than good, as out of the wealth of brilliant Polish music, both the well known and the more obscure (Panufnik, Lutosławski, Penderecki, Serocki and Szymański spring to mind), none were given exposure at this concert. Nevertheless, Good Night, the last piece in the programme, really paid off. This work from 1990 was written as a kind of chamber requiem for the London Sinfonietta’s then Artistic Director, the late Michael Vyner, and contains beautifully sparse homophonic writing for alto flute and piano executed delicately by Madeleine Staunton and Jane O’Leary, at times reminding me of Górecki’s more famed Symphony No. 3. It was enhanced further by the rich resonance of three tam-tams (played pianissimo) and the final utterance of ‘good night sweet prince’, Horatio’s final line in Hamlet.

The jewel in the programme was from the lesser-known Marta Ptaszynska, her Mobile for two percussionists, an indetermined work (the two performers are invited to choose any number of sections out of a total of 26), presented here in two different versions. Ptaszynska, a percussionist herself, created beautiful, resonant tones on both the marimba and vibraphone from tremolo effects. The second version contained the same opening and closing sections, but differed in the presentation of alternative central sections. Richard O’Donnell and Roberto Oliviera clearly enjoyed the performance.

It was an admirable initiative celebrating Polish culture, but could have benefited from a more varied programme, and the inclusion of some Irish music, possibly highlighting the similarities/differences between Irish and Polish contemporary music.