Mozart Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major k. 415

Sam Perkin Pause

Shostakovich Chamber Symphony in C minor opus 110.a  (String Quartet No.8, transcr. R. Barshai)

The Irish Chamber Orchestra under the leadership of Katherine Hunka puts the spotlight on Cork’s rising young talent. Twenty-year old Cork pianist Kevin Jansson is one of the finest musicians of his generation.  He makes his debut with the ICO for Mozart’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 13. This is music-making that radiates enjoyment, with splendidly alert orchestral playing.   Composer Sam Perkin, from Tivoli, is a long-time collaborator with ICO.  He was 21 when he wrote Pause, a reflective arrangement of The Foggy Dew, inspired by 1916. It beautifully blends the sounds of a slowed-down violin with the orchestra.  Finally, the 8^thQuartet or Chamber Symphony is the most personal of Shostakovich’s great works, dedicated ‘to the memory of myself’.  A gripping portrayal of the brutality of conflict, its jagged, dynamic rhythms contrast with elegiac outer movements that never fail to move the listener.