RTÉ Contempo Quartet perform John McLachlan work
Glenveagh Castle
RTÉ Contempo Quartet
Ingrid Nicola, violin
Programme
Haydn String Quartet in G major, Op 76 No. 1, Hob.III:75
John McLachlan Glad it was the Sun
Debussy String Quartet in G minor, L. 85, Op. 10
Glad It Was the Sun takes its title from a poem Lila’s Potatoes by celebrated writer Leland Bardwell, who was the composer’s mother. In the poem, the process of setting potatoes in lazy beds—ridges of earth—is blamed for the blight, and the author refers to how having eight daughters (the poem is not autobiographical) was also a result of lazy beds. When someone blames the blight on the sun, the poem says, of what caused all these children: “I’m glad it was the sun”. The piece was written for the RTÉ Contempo quartet who premiered the work in Enniskillen in May 2017.
The work is written in memory of the composer’s mother who died in June 2016 (aged 94).
Ticket information here.