View from the Green Room: Waterford-Music opens new season with powerhouse concert
Frasier Hickland and Eadaoin Hassett perform for Waterford Music at the Large Room.
Royal Irish Academy graduates Belfast-born pianist Frazier Hassett (piano) and Kildare soprano Éadaoin Hassett may be comparatively new to the music scene in Waterford but they already have a wealth of experience and performance behind them.
Frazier has performed in many concerts in Europe and America and also on radio and has featured as soloist with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the Irish Baroque Orchestra, as well as debuting as the Musical Director for Philip Glass/Robert Moran’s ‘The Juniper Tree’ opera in Belfast.
Éadaoin has featured in several operas in the last two years and has won the prestigious award for Northern Ireland Opera’s ‘Young Opera Voice of the Year’.
Éadaoin has performed the role of ‘La Baronessa’ in Haydn’s ‘La Vera Costanza’, ‘Maguelonne’ in Viardot’s ‘Cendrillon’ and most recently ‘Adele’ in scenes from Strauss’ ‘Die Fledermaus’ at the RIAM.
It’s a delight to see two young performers at the top of their game for the memorial concert that celebrates the life and work of singer/teacher Elizabeth Downey, who was a founder member of the Waterford Music Club way back in 1942.
It’s a massive achievement that the Music Club, now known as Waterford-Music, has survived a world war, a pandemic, emigration, along with the passing of many members and performers.
The entire programme is inspired by dreams and features well-known pieces such as Balfe’s legendary ‘I dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls’ that seems just right for the concert’s opener.
This aria from ‘The Bohemian Girl’ (also known as ‘The Gipsy Girl's Dream’) has been everywhere. Laurel and Hardy made a film of the opera and James Joyce referred to it in two of his short stories, while Enya recorded a very breathy version.
Stephen Foster’s ‘Beautiful Dreamer’ was his last composition. Its lyrics are typical of late Romantic poetry, although a feeling of melancholy haunts the piece as it’s never clear whether the young woman is dead or sleeping.
Éadaoin's soprano soars throughout the concert. It’s a big voice with a huge range that is always in control.
The drama of Frank Bridge’s ‘Come to me in my dreams’ is skilfully delivered in the soprano’s tale of a love-sick youth that can only be redeemed by the return of his loved one.
Italian-born Sir Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) was the toast of Victorian England. He was singing teacher to the royal family and the composer of more than 500 songs that made him a fortune. Éadaoin moves delightfully through his ‘Sogno’ (‘Dream’) with its smooth arpeggios and dramatic appeal, as she does with Franz Liszt’s ‘Oh! quand je dors’ (‘Ah while I sleep’ from Victor Hugo’s romantic poem) where Hassett’s quiet intensity adds to the dreamlike quality of the piece.
Pianist Frasier Hickland’s accompaniment and solo performances throughout the concert make for a very special night. Frasier is right on the money with Frank Bridge’s shut-eye lullaby ‘Berceuse’ with its slow measured tempo and dreamy feel with the sweetest of exits. Frasier plays Schumann’s ‘Traumerei’ with a sustained, gentle rhythm that is almost hypnotic before the interval beckons with three more songs from Schumann, Grieg and Brahms.
The second half of the concert is packed with some well-known pieces. There’s a lot going on in these Romantic-era songs where abundant nature and colourful, fully ripe fruit suggest intimate desire in their lyrics.
The duo’s performance of Bachelet’s ‘Cher Nuit’ (Beloved Night), Debussy’s ‘Nuit d’Etoiles’ (Night of Stars), Hahn’s ‘L’heure Exquise’ (Exquisite Hour) and R. Strauss’s ‘Die Erwachte Rose’ (The Awakened Rose) explode with romantic energy in a rush of lyrical intensity that is a musical feast.
John Field (1782-1837) seems to have been the first to use the term ‘nocturne’ as the title of short stand-alone piano pieces. ‘Notturni’ had previously simply meant entertainment pieces. Frasier Hickland’s playing of the Field Nocturne in A-Major is delicate and lyrical, leaving us feeling calm and at peace with the world.
The duo’s performance of the Sound of Music blockbuster ‘Climb every mountain’ drives powerfully to that magnificent final note from Éadaoin that’s as high as that lonely Alpine goatherd ever ascended.
A powerful finale to a superb concert from two up and coming performers that lit up The Large Room.
