Скачать или смотреть Postcard from Rathfarnham Castle

Postcard from Rathfarnham Castle

Cormac Ó hAodáin, horn
Andreja Maliř, harp

John Kinsella: Homage to Victor (world première)

A postcard from Dublin and the first of three world premières in the 2021 Dublin International Chamber Music Festival. One of Ireland’s leading composers, John Kinsella, dedicates his new work for horn and harp to Victor Maliř, who was for many years section leader of the horn section of the RTÉ NSO and one of Ireland’s leading teachersat the Royal Irish Academy of Music for over 60 years. It was commissioned by his daughter Andreja and his distinguished former student Cormac Ó hAodáin in memory of this much-loved musician.

One of the elder statesmen of Ireland’s composers, John Kinsella comes from Dublin where his two-fold career was divided between artistic administration and composition. Since his retirement as Head of Music in RTÉ he has been prolifically active in the area of writing music. The première of his 11th Symphony in the National Concert Hall on 29th November 2019 celebrated him receiving the Hall’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Over the years, John Kinsella has fulfilled commissions from many organisations including RTÉ, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Dublin International Piano Competition, New Ross Piano Festival and the Arts Council of Wales.

During his time at RTÉ, John Kinsella appointed the Vanbrugh Quartet as part of the extension of the station’s music groups as well as establishing a choral policy that saw the formation of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, Cór na nÓg and a chamber choir that would in time become Chamber Choir Ireland.

A member of Aosdána, John Kinsella is also a recipient of the Arts Council’s Marten Toonder Award

Kinsella’s latest composition - Homage to Victor - is in memory of Victor Maliř.

Born in Slovenia, Victor Maliř (1928-2016) was educated in Prague and appointed principal horn with the Slovenia Philharmonic in Ljubljana at the age of 21. Coming to Radio Éireann in 1955, he held the position of principal horn with its symphony orchestra for 25 years until a medical condition forced an end to his performing career. Following that he was appointed the RTÉSO’s librarian and, in 1987, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s manager. He retired in 1991.

Victor Maliř also taught at the RIAM for over 60 years years from 1955 and was made an honorary fellow of the Academy in 2000. Cormac Ó hAodáin, one of today’s soloists and principal horn with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, is one of Victor’s most eminent pupils.

Victor’s sensitive playing can be heard on many RTÉ recordings and, to particularly haunting effect, in Seán Ó Riada’s rhapsodic arrangement of the traditional air, Róisín Dubh, in his score for the 1959 Gael Linn film Mise Éire.

© Pat O’Kelly 2021

Presented in association with the Office of Public Works