GEALÁN QUARTET
Gina Maria McGuinness & Eoin Ducrot, violins
Fiachra de hOra, viola
Paul Grennan, cello
Sam Perkin – A Gathering [2025]
Turina – La Oración Del Torero [1925]
Puccini – Crisantemi [1890]
Shostakovich – String Quartet No.7 [1960]
Mendelssohn – String Quartet in F minor Op.80 [1847]
The Gealán Quartet open their programme this autumn with a series of evocative miniatures from Ireland, Spain, Italy and Russia, their concerts culminating in Mendelssohn’s powerful F minor quartet.
Cork composer Sam Perkin wrote his celebratory short quartet A Gathering for the opening of the 2025 West Cork Chamber Music Festival. He wrote: Are we in a barn, a pub, or at a chamber music festival? Regardless, our shared love of music and conviviality is woven throughout. In the spirit of fun and joy, we dance in celebration of The Musician. We honour all those who have come before and all those who will come after us
Turina’s Bullfighter’s Prayer portrays the contrast between the chaotic, festive atmosphere of a Madrid bullfight and the toreador praying for his safety. The music is unmistakably Spanish but also owes much to French impressionism.
Puccini’s Crisantemi is a moving elegy written in 1890 as a tribute on the death of Amadeo I of Spain, a son of the Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele II.
Shostakovich wrote his seventh string quartet in memory of his first wife who had died in 1954. In its three short movements the music is unsettled and unflinching, circling grief without finding resolution.
Mendelssohn approaches grief in a very different way in his F minor quartet Op.80, written in homage to his sister Fanny who had died a few weeks previously. The impassioned emotional turmoil of the first two movements gives way to a weeping lament in the slow movement and then to a fiery, virtuosic finale, perhaps a tribute to the brilliance of Fanny’s own string quartet writing.
Part of a tour funded by the Arts Council and RTE Lyric FM