Criticism
Ensemble Ériu – Stargazer
Ensemble Ériu, a group that combines traditional, jazz and contemporary music, recently toured their new six-part suite 'Stargazer'. Toner Quinn attended the opening performance in Galway.
The Master's Return
Frankie Gavin and Malachy Bourke's fiddle tribute to Paddy Killoran is not just about what the Sligo émigré played, but how he played, writes Dermot McLaughlin.
The Last Hotel
Dónal Sarsfield reviews 'The Last Hotel' at the Dublin Theatre Festival on 27 September.
Big Book, Small Back Room
Reading the Companion to Irish Traditional Music, Ciaran Carson reflects on the many ways traditional music has changed in recent decades, but also how much it has stayed the same.
Lives Defined in Death
Stephen Graham attends the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's premiere of Seán Clancy's Findetotenlieder and performances of Barry, Grisey and Weir.
The Teetotallers in Concert
Paul O'Connor on the joys of live music as delivered by Martin Hayes, Kevin Crawford and John Doyle.
Without a Core Tradition
Three recent recordings of twentieth and twenty-first century Irish orchestral composition reveal a persistent ambition to fuse an Irish musical heritage with European styles of composition.
Performance Redefined
The 2011 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival included extreme durations, music with found objects, non-orchestral music for orchestra as well as on-stage boxing and wrestling.
Effecting a Divide
This year's Hard Working Class Heroes festival inadvertently made a clear division between better- and lesser-known acts. The result was that some of the most interesting bands struggled to draw an audience, writes Anna Murray.
Mahler Everywhere
Was Gustav Mahler the most influential composer of the last 150 years? Two recent books by the journalist and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht claim as much; George Rafael, though, feels the question of Mahler's influence is more personal.