Recordings from Redmond O'Toole's April 2016 Salon
Guitarist Redmond O'Toole featured in CMC's 2016 Salon Series in April with a programme 8-string guitar works by Irish composers.
The performance was recorded by Darby Carroll. Here are two recordings taken from the event - Cortège by Ian Wilson and The Juggler Darragh O'Neill.
Ian Wilson on Cortège:
Cortège draws its inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s painting 'Chant funèbre pour Ignacio Sanchez Mejías', an artistic memorial to one of Spain’s greatest bullfighters who died in 1934 and who was also famously memorialized by Lorca in his 'Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sánchez Mejías'. I had seen a number of Picasso’s matador works on a visit to Malaga in 2005 and the images stayed with me, waiting for the the right time to be ‘put to work’ in a piece of music.
'Cortège' juxtaposes melancholy, ‘memorial’-type music with more energetic passages reflecting a life lived on the edge. Given the nature of the inspiration, its no surprise that the music embraces Spanish-originated guitar strumming, dance-like figurations and a more lyrical ‘singing’ style of playing.
Redmond O’Toole is recognised as one of the most distinctive and original guitarists of his generation. He was the first to adopt Paul Galbraith’s ‘Brahms guitar’. This groundbreaking instrument and technique uses an 8-string guitar in the position of a cello. He has performed at major concert halls and events throughout Europe such as Passau International Guitar Festival, Germany, Irish National Concert Hall, Royal Dublin Society Concert Hall and Hallein Guitar Festival, Austria .