One of the highlights in the Music for Galway calendar, the Emily Anderson Concert will take place next week to celebrate the works of Mozart.
The annual Emily Anderson Concert will take place in the concert hall named in her honour at the University of Galway this Friday, October 13 at 7:30pm.
Historian, linguist, and WW2 codebreaker, Emily Anderson has an exciting and varied life. During her time at University of Galway she translated the correspondence of Mozart and Beethoven into English.
Her work continues to give people an insight into the minds of these musical titans, and the concert commemorates that, and her legacy, with the works of both men.
The concert opens with Music for Galway’s own artistic director, Irish pianist Finghin Collins, who will perform Mozart’s C minor Sonata KV 457, its dramatic opening heralding one of his most well-known works for solo piano.
After this the Castalian Quartet will make its Irish debut with string quartet KV 421, a beautiful piece that has more than a pinch of romanticism.
One of Ireland’s most successful musicians, Finghin Collins was born in Dublin in 1977 and studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with John O’Conor and at the Geneva Conservatoire with Dominique Merlet.
He took first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. Since then he has continued to enjoy a flourishing international career that takes him all over Europe and the United States, as well to the Far East and Australia.
Finghin Collins is very active as a programmer, commissioner and concert presenter in Ireland, having been Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival since its inception in 2006, and Artistic Director of Music for Galway since 2013.
Founded in 2011, the Castalian String Quartet is taking the international chamber music scene by storm. Gaining renown for interpretations “full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection” (The Observer).
They have recently been announced as the first Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford and are Artist-in-Residence at the Wigmore Hall in their home city of London.
Their recent and forthcoming highlights include debut invitations to Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress Washington, San Francisco Performances, Emerald City Music Seattle, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Vienna Konzerthaus, and many more.
They quartet say, “It is always special to perform in our home countries; ever since Irish violist Ruth Gibson joined the Castalian String Quartet we have been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to make our debut in Ireland”.
“We could not think of a more fitting programme to celebrate the occasion than this Mozart collaboration with Finghin Collins, pairing the tenebrous D minor string quartet with the abundantly melodic piano concerto k.414.”
Originally written for piano and orchestra, this intimate setting is sure to send everyone off into the autumn evening with a smile.
Standard Ticket prices are €20; Concession €18; Social Inclusion €6; MfG Friends €16 and can be booked from www.musicforgalway.ie or 091 705962.
