Boot Boy Performs in The Helix

dublin | arts and media | news report Sunday September 24, 2006 15:20 by Sean Crudden - impero sean.crudden at iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

Is It Possible to Hear This Again?

The Nigel Kennedy concert in The Helix last night was the third in a series of concerts in the Irish Chamber Orchestra's "Festival of Strings." The program will be repeated tonight in the University Concert Hall, Limerick. Further concerts in the series will take place in Dublin, LImerick, Rathkeale, Inis Oirr and Birr in October. These latter concerts will feature Katherine Hunka director/violin.

Last night’s Nigel Kennedy concert in The Helix featured Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 4 and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D. The Irish Chamber Orchestra with which Kennedy has successfully collaborated before was augmented by a pair of horn players in the Mozart and by a percussionist. For the Beethoven their was a further augmentation by a range of wood-wind players. As well as the published program Kennedy played a Bach solo piece as a pipe-opener and another solo Bach piece to conclude the concert. As an encore he played a piece he composed himself (based on the music of Stephan Grapelli?) for two violins and orchestra. On this occasion he was partnered by a sweet oboe player called up from the back of the orchestra (instead of a second violin).

Anyone who attends a Nigel Kennedy concert knows what to expect - Doc Martin boots, a farmer’s walk, bovver boy gestures, a Mohician haircut and characteristic collarless dress with a sash hanging down in the genital area. He talks a lot in a thick cockney accent and I caught the sense of very little of what he said because I was sitting in the "inexpensive" seats in the choir balcony behind him. But the message is clear - he wants to smash the stuffy conventions that create a barrier between the ordinary punter and music performance in the concert hall and he wants to get people in an upbeat frame of mind so that they can relax and enjoy themselves.

However his music is neat and tidy and razor sharp, his awareness of his fellow players and of the audience is acute. He keeps a good speed in the faster movements and in the slow movements he is deliberate but not slow. He knows his players and with banter and high-fives, etc., he skillfully manages to get their personalities introduced to and across to the audience. Late-comers, noises off-stage and all the perils of live performance do not get him into a huff. He doesn’t smoulder as some performer do but let’s the audience know tactfully but directly that he knows what is going on.

I was positioned above the back of the orchestra and I marvelled at winning performances drawn from the horns in the Mozart. Some of the conversations between the wood-wind (especially the more deep-throated instruments) and the lead violin in the Beethoven were music at its most attractive and affecting and very quietly realised. My musical memory is not great but I thought that some of the cadenza’s which Kennedy wandered through in the Mozart were music of a surreal, narcotic quality that mark him out as a musician of maturity and genius with a highly individual voice.

I should point out that Kennedy directed everything himself i.e. there was no conductor. So the players in the orchestra had to "listen" themselves and cue in to what was going on at any given time. Candidly the fact that that kind of responsibility was thrust onto the players added immensely to the overall musical quality of the whole performance and I think Nigel Kennedy empowered the orchestra in a most correct way and in such a way that they were fulfilled by the work they did on a night that everyone enjoyed.