THE KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL
Kilkenny Arts Festival is entering its 35th year and has experienced phenomenal growth in recent times. The festival is recognised nationally and internationally as one of Ireland’s biggest and best multi-disciplinary arts festivals. The festival is renowned for attracting leading artists and performers across all art forms from around the world. Stunning visual art, original and innovative theatre productions, spectacular street entertainment, a comprehensive and fun children’s programme, an exciting and innovative new contemporary music programme “Wired”, internationally renowned traditional and jazz musicians, leading authors from the world of literature and high profile classical music acts are just some of what can be expected at the 2008 Kilkenny Arts Festival.
Kilkenny Arts Festival is a non-profit organisation, principally funded by The Arts Council, Fáilte Ireland and Kilkenny County and Borough Councils and gratefully acknowledges the support of all sponsors.
FURTHER INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS For further information and booking details Tel: +353 56 775 2175 Website: www.kilkennyarts.ie
CLASSICAL MUSIC at KILKENNY ARTS FESTIVAL 8TH – 17TH AUGUST 2008
As befits Kilkenny Arts Festival’s international reputation and proud history of excellence and imagination in classical programming, the 2008 programme offers a mouth-watering array of concerts, with 10 events taking place over the 10 days of the festival, featuring some of the world’s leading musicians from Australia, the US, Germany, the UK and Ireland in the dazzling line-up.
The festival is delighted to welcome The Dresden Group for what, it is anticipated, will mark the beginning of a fruitful and lasting collaboration over the coming years, starting with four concerts from this ensemble this year.
Other highlights of the classical music programme include acclaimed orchestras from north and south the Ulster Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra, classical guitarist John Williams, Andreas Scholl, one of the world’s leading countertenors, US lute player Crawford Young, UK soprano Claire Booth, Ireland’s own baroque specialists Camerata Kilkenny, and Malcolm Proud on the newly restored 1853 Bevington organ at St Canice’s Cathedral.
All this and more add up to a unique opportunity to hear these world-class aritsts perform against the stunning medieval architecture of Kilkennny.
ANDREAS SCHOLL – COUNTERTENOR (GERMANY) with CRAWFORD YOUNG – LUTE (US) 8.15pm Friday 8th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €30/€20
Elizabethan Songs by Thomas Campion, John Dowland and Robert Johnson Instrumental Music by Anthony Holborne, William Byrd and Gregory Huwett And a selection of English & Irish folksongs, arranged by Crawford Young
Andreas Scholl is “one of the most outstanding performers of our time” (The Irish Times). As one of the world’s leading countertenors, he has worked with such conductors as Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, John Eliot Gardiner and Paul McCreesh, and made his own conducting debut in 2005. His operatic engagements include Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda at Glyndebourne and The Metropolitan Opera, and the title role in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Royal Danish Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra de Lausanne. As a recording artist, he has won several international awards for his recital CDs and, in recent years, he has recorded some of his own compositions with orchestral accompaniment. Andreas Scholl also teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Crawford Young is a founding member of the medieval ensembles Project Ars Nova and the Ferrara Ensemble of Basel. He has also performed with Jordi Savall’s Hesperion XX and Karl-Ernst Schröder, and is regarded as one of the most prominent interpreters of early lute music.
Kilkenny Arts Festival, in association with Music in Kilkenny, is thrilled to welcome these two outstanding artists to perform this collection of songs for the opening concert of this year’s festival.
“The world's most cultured counter-tenor voice… I would have backed him to have walked on water" The Times
CAMERATA KILKENNY (IRELAND) WITH NADJA ZWIENER – GUEST DIRECTOR (GERMANY) AND CLAIRE BOOTH – SOPRANO (UK) 7.30 pm Saturday 9th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €25/€23 Please note early starting time
PROGRAMME JS BACH: Cantatas: Weichet Nur (BWV 202) – The Wedding Cantata Jauchzet Gott (BWV 51) JS BACH: Violin Concerto in E Major (BWV 1042) JS BACH: Brandenburg Concerto No.2 (BWV 1047) Camerata Kilkenny: Nadja Zwiener, violin George Crawford, violin Claire Duff, violin Marja Gaynor, violin
Anita Vedres, violin Louise Hogan, viola Malgosia Ziemkiewicz Artabe, viola Sarah McMahon, cello Malachy Robinson, double bass Hannah McLaughlin, oboe Laoise O’Brien, recorder David Staff, trumpet
Malcolm Proud, harpsichordAn ensemble of internationally-acclaimed Irish-based artists, Camerata Kilkenny specialises in the performance of Baroque music, and since its debut in 1999, the ensemble has performed at many national and international festivals, enjoying collaborating with emerging and established artists from Ireland and overseas. In 2007, with Maya Homburger, they won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik, the prestigious German recording award.Leading Camerata Kilkenny in this stirring programme is Nadja Zwiener, who is a founding member of the Kuss Quartett in Germany, leader for The English Concert, one of Europe’s leading baroque orchestras, and who regularly leads the internationally-renowned early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Guest soloist is the charming and versatile Claire Booth, one of the most talented singers of her generation, who regularly performs at such venues as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Wigmore Hall and the Palais des Beaux Arts and with such ensembles as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. With the superb David Staff, an expert on period and modern instruments, on baroque trumpet, this promises to be a charming evening of early music.
RTÉ CONCERT ORCHESTRA (IRELAND) Gearóid Grant, CONDUCTOR Áine Mulvey, MEZZO-SOPRANO 7.30pm Monday 11th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €30/€20
PROGRAMME: JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The Gladiator March ARTHUR SULLIVAN: Overture H.M.S. Pinafore JULIUS FUCÍK: Entrance of the Gladiators ANTONIN DVORÁK: Largo: New World Symphony EDWARD ELGAR: Sea Pictures NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade RONALD BINGE: The Watermill RONALD BINGE: Sailing By FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Overture Fingal's Cave HANS ZIMMER (arr. Wasson): Gladiator
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has been cherished by Irish audiences throughout its 60-year history, whether performing with international stars such as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo or Kiri Te Kanawa, or with such leading Irish artists as Cara O’Sullivan, Virginia Kerr and Altan. Conducting the orchestra in Kilkenny will be Gearóid Grant, one of the most energetic and enduring conductors in Ireland today. Guest soloist for this concert will be mezzo-soprano Áine Mulvey, a soloist with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and many other choirs and choral societies, in addition to her many operatic engagements.
THE DRESDEN GROUP (GERMANY)
CONCERT I 8pm Wednesday 13th August, The Great Hall, Kilkenny Castle, Tickets €20/€18
PROGRAMME SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Quintet in G Minor, op.39 FRANZ SCHUBERT: Octet in F Major, D. 803
CONCERT II 1.10pm Thursday 14th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €15/€10
PROGRAMME PAVEL HAAS: Woodwind Quintet, op.10 ALBERT ROUSSEL: Trio for flute, viola & cello, op.40 SAMUEL BARBER: Summer Music for Woodwind, op.31
CONCERT III 8pm Friday 15th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €20/€18
PROGRAMME HANNS EISLER: 14 Ways To Describe The Rain IGOR STRAVINSKY: Septet DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No.2 in E Minor, op.67
CONCERT IV 3pm Sunday 17th August, Castalia Hall, Ballytobin, Callan, Co Kilkenny, Tickets €15/€10 Bus from The Parade, Kilkenny at 2.15pm, €2.00
PROGRAMME GUSTAV MAHLER: Movement for piano quartet in A Minor BOHUSLAV MARTINU: Trio for flute, cello & piano W.A. MOZART: Quintet for piano & wind in E Flat, K452
The Dresden Group Nicola Birkhan, violin Eva Dollfuß, violin Dorothea Hemken, viola Anke Heyn, cello Dominik Greger, double bass
Sabine Kittel, flute Volker Hanemann, oboe Christian Dollfuß, clarinet Andreas Börtitz, bassoon Julius Rönnebeck, horn
Paul Rivinius, piano
At the core of this year’s classical music programme is a mouth-watering series of concerts by The Dresden Group. This highly talented ensemble, brought together especially for Kilkenny, is comprised of the Kapellquintett Dresden (wind quintet), of the renowned Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world’s top orchestras, along with colleagues who are currently, or have been, closely linked to the musical life of Dresden and who are now with some of the other leading orchestras in Germany. Completing the ensemble is acclaimed pianist Paul Rivinius. United by their rich tradition and deep passion for chamber music, these exceptional musicians have devised a colourful programme of music which includes some of the classics of mixed chamber ensembles and also explores the fascinating and extremely different approach to chamber music by composers in the first half of the 20th century.
MALCOLM PROUD – ORGAN (IRELAND) 1.10pm Saturday 16th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €15/€10
PROGRAMME JS Bach: Clavier Übung III - Praeludium in E flat - Kyrie, Gott Vater - Christe, aller Welt Trost - Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist - Allein Gott - Diess sind die heilgen zehen Geboth - Vater unser im Himmelreich - Christ unser Herr - Aus tieffer Noth - Jesus Christus unser Heiland - Fuga in E flat
Born in Dublin, Malcolm Proud studied with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and won first prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition in 1982. Since then, he has established an international career as an organist and harpsichordist, performing with such groups as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Gustav Leonhardt, the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Gabrieli Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music, and touring throughout Europe, North America and Japan. He is a member of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and a founder member of Camerata Kilkenny, a lecturer on the BA Degree Course in Music at Waterford Institute of Technology and the organist at St. Canice’s Cathedral, on whose recently restored 1853 Bevington organ this concert will be performed.
JOHN WILLIAMS – GUITAR (AUSTRALIA) 8pm Thursday 14th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €30/€25
John Williams is one of the foremost classical guitarists of our time. Amongst his collaborations with other musicians, those with Julian Bream, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Previn, Cleo Laine, John Dankworth and Daniel Barenboim are particularly important. John Williams’ recordings reveal a wide-ranging repertoire, from classical to contemporary, and music from the movies to various South American composers. He recently released “El Diablo Suelto”, a collection of Venezuelan music, while his latest release from Sony Classical is “Places Between”, a double CD with John Etheridge, recorded live in Dublin.
Reviews “the undisputed king of the classical guitar” – The Times “infinite shades of colour…refined sensitivity” – Hong Kong Standard
ULSTER ORCHESTRA (NORTHERN IRELAND) 8.00pm Saturday 16th August, St Canice’s Cathedral, Tickets €30/€20 Nicholas Braithwaite, CONDUCTOR Priya Mitchell, VIOLIN
PROGRAMME: LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Egmont Overture WOLFGAN AMADEUS MOZART: Violin Concerto No.5 ANTONIN DVORÁK: Symphony No.8
Following their tremendous performance at St Canice’s Cathedral last year, the festival is delighted to welcome the Ulster Orchestra back to Kilkenny. Established over 40 years ago, the Orchestra is one of the major symphony ensembles in the UK with many and wide-ranging artistic and educational achievements. Directing the orchestra’s programme in Kilkenny will be distinguished conductor Nicholas Braithwaite, who brings to the evening an extraordinary breadth of classical and operatic experience. Guest soloist for the Mozart concerto will be the exciting Priya Mitchell, “one of the foremost violinists of her generation” (The Strad). An evening brimming with promise.