An emotionally potent portrait of real-life despair
Kate Wakeling hails Donnacha Dennehy’s famineinspired cantata as a triumph of musical storytelling
The Hunger Katherine Manley (soprano), Iarla Ó Lionáird (sean-nós singer); Alarm Will Sound/alan Pierson Nonesuch 075597925159 45:07 mins ‘There’d be long, all-night sessions in my grandmother’s house with singing and poetry, and people remembering 30-stanza poems’ recalls composer Donnacha Dennehy of his childhood in Kerry. This immersion in the rich tradition of musical storytelling has clearly shaped Dennehy’s compositional style and The Hunger powerfully demonstrates his profound sensitivity in fusing music and text.
Described as a form of ‘docu-cantata’, The Hunger explores the Great Irish Famine of 1845-52. Dennehy draws on American reformer Asenath Nicholson’s 1851 Annals of the Famine in Ireland, which includes a number of first-hand accounts of the famine. Alongside Nicholson’s text (scored for soprano), Dennehy also creates a role for an elderly Irish character, drawing on the vocal sean-nós (old style) tradition and bringing to the fore a voice often lost in discussions of the famine. These two musical lines are at first distinct, but gradually the soprano part starts to assimilate the sean-nós material of the old man, mirroring in this shift of musical register how Nicholson herself passed from observer to empathetic participant in the events.
Dennehy’s score is inventive, focused and beautiful. Perhaps most commendably, it is also entirely free of sentimentality while always feeling fully alive to the emotional potency of these devastating times. Soprano Katherine Manley and acclaimed sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird bring both tremendous colour, clarity and pathos to the storytelling, while ensemble Alarm Will Sound are similarly outstanding throughout. The Hunger is by no means an easy listen but this is without doubt an arresting and deeply rewarding disc.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★
Hear extracts from this recording and the rest of this month’s choices on the BBC Music Magazine website at www.classical-music.com
Dennehy’s score is inventive, focused and beautiful