Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

* Stressed out over Angela Gheorghiu’s no-show at the NCH, I sought solace the very next morning by taking myself off to the Sunday @ Noon concert series in Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.

These hour-long concerts, supported by Dublin City Council and the Arts Council, are free to the public and would make one feel proud to be a citizen of Dublin. The recital was given by Scottish viola maestro Garth Knox and French cellist Agnès Vesterman, professors of music, in Spain and Italy, respectively. Baroque was top of the agenda, plus improvisations on Seamus Heaney poems, and a short flurry of Knox’s own compositions in sound experimentation.
The fascinating aspect was Knox’s virtuosity on the viola d’amore, a 14-string instrument of terrifying complexity seven of the strings are hidden that produces the most intriguing and subtle sound variations.
The high point was an adaptation of a canon-like work by French medieval master Marin Marais. Titled Folies, its theme worked its way around 17 times in various guises, producing stunning playing from both viola d’amore and cello together.
This thought-provoking and delightful concert banished Gheorghiu from my thoughts for the rest of the day. The Sunday@ Noon series continues next week with a Mozart concert by the topnotch Haydn Trio Eisenstadt from Austria.