Smock Alley – Works by Carina Drury, Giordani, Geminiani, Ireland, Roseingrave, D Scarlatti et al
Irlandiani
FHR FHR144 61:15 mins
In this, their second album, instrumental group Irlandiani explores the Italian connection with Dublin’s theatre scene in the 18th century. It is a reminder that Dublin was an important centre of music making and cultural exchange. The area around the city’s Smock Alley Theatre in particular became a meeting point for Italian and Irish musicians and composers.
The core works are a set of six cello duos and a cello sonata by the Naples-born, Dublin-based composer Tommaso Giordani. They are simple but attractive works, reminiscent of Boccherini and Haydn, but with an unmistakably ‘Irish’ flavour. The faster movements – especially the Giga of the third duo – show the influence of popular jig rhythms and melodies. The celebrated violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani also spent time in Dublin (he died there in 1762) and is represented by one of his innovative Op. 5 cello sonatas. Domenico Scarlatti also makes an appearance, with two keyboard sonatas that are prefaced by a gently restrained Introduction by Thomas Roseingrave, a Dubliner who
met the Scarlattis in Venice and later published an edition of Domenico’s sonatas.
Irlandiani also plays arrangements for cello, violone, percussion and flute of Irish folk tunes and songs. They include the funeral lament Caoineadh, based on the melody from the Irish air Caoineadh na dTrí Muire and adapted by cellist Carina Drury. Both she and Poppy Walshaw play the duos and sonatas with sensitivity and conviction. Fine playing, too, by Nathaniel Mander on harpsichord. The recorded sound from Heath Street Baptist Church in north London is warm and well balanced. John-Pierre Joyce