The second Irish-Russian Chamber Music festival takes place in Moscow from 30 October - 5 November

William Dowdall

Subtitled ‘From John Field to the 21st Century’, the festival features concerts of music by Irish and Russian composers spanning four centuries performed by leading Irish and Russian musicians.

Taking place in Moscow over four concerts, performers include the Vanbrugh Quartet and flautist William Dowdall, and Russian musicians Olga Solovieva (piano) and Nika Ryabchinenko (harp), among others.

The opening concert on 30 October features John Field’s Piano Quintet and Aloys Feischmann’s Movement for String Quartet performed alongside a selection of songs by Russian composers who were pupils of John Field. Donnacha Dennehy’s Stamp for string quartet is the opening work of the second concert on 2 November, which also includes Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and the premiere of a new work for flute and strings by composer Elena Astafieva, dedicated to William Dowdall and the Vanbrugh Quartet.

Ian Wilson’s first string quartet, Winter’s Edge, features in a concert on 3 November at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary, as well as works by John Gibson, Éamonn Ó Gallchobhair, Hamilton Harty, and a selection of Irish airs arranged for flute and harp by John Buckley.

The final concert features a programme of works for soprano, flute, harp, piano, horn and double bass, and includes pieces by Irish composers Rhona Clarke, Aloys Fleischmann, Éamonn Ó Gallchobhair, Philip Martin, Mary McAuliffe, Daniel McNulty, TC Kelly, and John Kinsella.

The Irish-Russian Chamber Music festival is supported by Culture Ireland and follows on from the first festival which was held last year.

Further information on the festival is available from irish-russian-chamber-music.org and CMC’s calendar