FESTIVAL BASKS IN GLORIOUS MUSIC
featured a mixture of short snatches of Bach, Mozart and Janacek, all mixed up and very disorientating. It succeeded in its aim of confusion and disturbance, and set the audience talking and arguing about its merits for the remainder of the weekend.
During the weekend the festival launched its CD of the 15 new piano pieces, The Ros Tapestry Suite, commissioned from 15 Irish composers inspired by the fifteen panels of the Ros Tapestry, and performed by international pianists during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 festivals. Sinead Casey, speaking on behalf of Wexford Arts Office, who supported the making of the CD, stated that it fitted perfectly into the council’s cultural aims. Also during the weekend, Finghin Collins premiered a new work by one of Ireland’s most respected composers John Buckley which the festival commissioned this year. John was present for the performance.
The 2018 New Ross Piano Festival concluded triumphantly on Sunday afternoon with an exhilarating performance of Prokofiev’s fiendishly difficult Sixth Piano Sonata by the Irish-American pianist Anne Marie McDermott.
Festival director Connie Tantrum said: ‘ Although this was the thirteenth New Ross Festival there was certainly no hint of the usual superstition attached to that number as the lucky attendees were treated to an extraordinary exhibition of pianistic virtuosity by a truly international roster of gifted pianist, which included Irish, English, Swedish, French, Romanian, American, Cuban and Bulgarian artists. From the opening children’s’ concert on Wednesday night to the closing concert the standard never flagged nor indeed the enthusiasm of the audience. A particular highlight of the opening children’s concert was the sight of the four Mercer sisters happily playing together on the one piano an arrangement of Lavignac’s Galop- Marche for eight hands. Their enjoyment was infectious.’
The organisers re-iterated how grateful they are for the continuing support they receive from the Arts Council, Wexford County Council, Fáilte Ireland and the Friends of the Festival. They also thanked the congregation of St Mary’s Church for the use of the church with its extraordinary acoustic. Plans are already at an advanced stage for next year’s festival and even for 2020.