The first part of the Foundation’s contribution to marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) presents three concerts each performed in Cork’s Triskel Christchurch and Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery, featuring seven new commissions by some of Ireland’s leading composers. The series is presented with the support of the Arts Council, RTE and Cork City Council

Beethoven Reflected I - The Ficino Quartet with Amanda Feery, Cora Venus Lunny, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and Garrett Sholdice

Saturday 18th January 2020 at 1.10pm: CORK - Triskel Christchurch
Sunday 19th January 2020 at 12pm: DUBLIN - Hugh Lane Gallery

Curated by Ergodos, the first concert is centred upon Ficino Ensemble’s thoughtful and impassioned performance of Beethoven’s fifteenth string quartet (1825) – with its famous “Holy song of thanksgiving” that opens the third movement.

The first four movements of this breath-taking masterwork are preceded by specially commissioned works by Amanda Feery, Garrett Sholdice, Cora Venus Lunny and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly.

A new, seamless whole is formed. The new works sit out-of-time – resonating in sympathy with the Beethoven quartet; refracting and reflecting its light; suggesting a multiplicity of connections, both internal and external.

Amanda Feery’s new piece, From Ashes, opens the concert, tracing over faint grainy remnants of the Beethoven quartet – an archaeology of sound, emotion and meaning.

The Secret Cause, Garrett Sholdice’s interlude between first and second movements, meditates on Beethoven’s “Heiligenstadt Testament”, written some two decades prior to the fifteenth quartet, in which the composer expresses despair at his growing deafness, his growing isolation.

Cora Venus Lunny’s new piece, Theft, precedes the third movement and its famous opening “Heiliger Dankgesang” hymn. “I wanted to go to some deep and even unpleasant places,” she says, “in order to appreciate the light of Beethoven’s gloriousness even more and be lifted up.”

In Foreign Hand, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly gently sustains the rich sonorities of the third movement – an extended moment of repose before the final tour-de-force of the fourth and fifth movements.

Amanda Feery — From Ashes †
Ludwig van Beethoven — String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 – I. Assai sostenuto – Allegro
Garrett Sholdice — The Secret Cause †
Ludwig van Beethoven — String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 – II. Allegro ma non tanto
Cora Venus Lunny — Theft †
Ludwig van Beethoven — String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 – III. Molto adagio
Benedict Schlepper-Connolly — Foreign Hand †
Ludwig van Beethoven — String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 – IV. Alla marcia, assai vivace, attacca V. Allegro appassionato

† Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation & Ergodos with funds from The Arts Council /
An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Beethoven Reflected II - The ConTempo Quartet with Linda and Irene Buckley

Saturday 15th February 2020 at 1.10pm: CORK - Triskel Christchurch
Sunday 16th February 2020 at 12pm: DUBLIN - Hugh Lane Gallery

The second concert in the series traces threads of connection from the work of Beethoven through to New York’s Julia Wolfe and Cork composer sisters Irene and Linda Buckley. There is a particular focus on his String Quartet No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 131, written in 1826, the year before Beethoven died. It is said that upon listening to a performance of this quartet, Schubert remarked, "After this, what is left for us to write?" Movements I, VI and VII are featured, serving as departure points for reimagining material in new work composed for the concert by Linda and Irene Buckley. Julia Wolfe has often spoken of the Beethoven influence in her own work, most notably from his late quartets. Four Marys marries the worlds of Appalachian folk music with the elegiac qualities of late Beethoven, reflecting Wolfe’s dissolving of boundaries between genres.

Linda Buckley – I Adagio Reflected †
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet Op.131: I – Adagio
Linda Buckley – I Adagio Reflected II †
Julia Wolfe – Four Marys
Irene Buckley – VI Adagio Reflected †
Linda Buckley – VII Allegro Reflected †
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet Op.131: VI & VII – Adagio & Allegro

† Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation with funds from The Arts Council /
An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Beethoven Reflected III - The Esposito Quartet with Donnacha Dennehy

Saturday 7th March 2020 at 1.10pm: CORK - Triskel Christchurch
Sunday 8th March 2020 at 12pm: DUBLIN - Hugh Lane Gallery

For the final concerts of the series, Donnacha Dennehy presents a new companion piece for Beethoven’s last and most reflective quartet, his F major quartet Op.135.

The pieces in this concert reflect upon each other, their makers or the myths around the music.  Janacek’s first string quartet, “Kreutzer Sonata”, not only relates to Beethoven’s sonata for violin and piano of the same name but also to Tolstoy’s novella in which the Beethoven piece features dramatically.  It’s a response to a kind of myth that’s built up around Beethoven – Beethoven the romantic hero.  But Beethoven was not just that of course. Many think of his final complete quartet, Op. 135, as the most Haydn-esque of his late period.  It hearkens back to the wit of his teacher, probably the leading writer of string quartets before Beethoven himself.  I love the joy and the playful pushing of form in this quartet, where wrong turns work like viruses in the music.  The quartet flies in the face of any kind of grand narrative for Beethoven’s final works.  I like that it throws a spanner in the works.  My short quartet, Wig, builds off some of the wrong turns in the 2nd movt. of Op. 135. Donnacha Dennehy

Leoš Janáček [1854-1928] - Quartet No.1 The Kreutzer Sonata
Donnacha Dennehy - ‘Wig’ †
Ludwig van Beethoven[1770-1827] - String Quartet in F major Op.135 [1826]

† Commissioned by the National String Quartet Foundation with funds from The Arts Council /
An Chomhairle Ealaíon.