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Ros Tapestry Suite

The Ros Tapestry Suite is the most ambitious project undertaken by the New Ross Piano Festival since its inception in 2006. It represents a variegated musical response to the Ros Tapestry, an impressive fifteen-panel work of embroidery tracing the history of the Norman invasion of Ireland. The double-album edition documents fifteen works for solo piano, each commissioned from a different Irish composer by the New Ross Piano Festival, and each involved with a distinct and personal engagement with one of the tapestry panels.
 
The fifteen pieces were premiered by an array of Irish and international pianists, five at a time, at the three piano festivals in September 2014, 2015 and 2016. For each performance, the tapestry in question was carried up to the church from the exhibition space and displayed beside the piano. The compositions are as rich and varied as the tapestry is colourful and engrossing: from Gerald Barry’s poised and minimal evocation of the moments before the Norman landing at Bannow Strand, to Linda Buckley’s introspective musical portrait of the Anglo-Norman nobleman William Marshal; to Sebastian Adams’ abstraction of the Siege of Wexford, and Deirdre Gribbin’s controlled and painterly response to a stormy Medieval sea crossing.
 
The roll call of pianists represented here is also impressive, including the festival’s Artistic Director Finghin Collins, young stars such as Dublin International Piano Competition winner Nathalia Milstein and up-and-coming Wexford native Jonathan Morris, and also established international names such as Nicholas Angelich, Piers Lane, Lise de la Salle and Cédric Tiberghein.
 
€ 12.20

The Irish Double Bass

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€ 10.00

Malachy Robinson: the Irish double bass

"The 2020 Covid19 pandemic coincided with my reaching the age of fifty,  and so a universal period of reflection and re-evaluation was heightened by this mid-life milestone.  In the absence of concerts, the risk for a performing musician was of falling into despondency, leaving one’s instrument aside because there was no point in practising.  Some of my friends went that way.  But I felt that I had to fight the melancholy for fear of being overcome by it, and it resulted in a deeply rewarding period with my bass.  I had the time to engage with Joesph Groococks' Sonata at last, and after a couple of months had decided how best to adapt it to the larger instrument. I then revisited a number of Irish solo pieces that had particularly resonated with me – and which explored different facets of the bass – and with the support of the Sligo International Chamber Music Festival I contacted Deirdre Gribbin for something brand new to round it off.  A successful funding application led to the recording of this album in March 2021, with the remarkable Laoise O’Brien producing, the unflappable Ben Rawlins engineering, and the brilliant Gary Beecher on piano.  What fun we had!

This album, then, is three things: a personal retrospective, a look at a diverse set of composers from Ireland through the medium of my instrument, and a celebration of what you can do with a double bass.  From the traditional craftsmanship of the Sonata to the gay abandon of Bodhrán; from 1985 to 2021; from the very bottom to the tippytop; from me to you, with gratitude for the privilege of a life in music. "

Malachy Robinson

€ 10.00