Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Music for Galway’s 22nd annual Midwinter Festival, taking place next month, will focus on the music of French composer Maurice Ravel and will run from Friday to Sunday, January 17-19, at the city’s Town Hall Theatre. It follows the group’s celebration last January of Ravel’s countryman, Gabriel Fauré.

Born 150 years ago to a Swiss father and a Basque mother, Ravel was regarded as France’s greatest living composer in the 1920s and 1930s, and he once commented that “the only love affair I ever had was with music”.

His best-known work is the hypnotic Boléro and MfG’s festival will conclude with a new imagining of the piece for a piano duet and dance artist, in partnership with Galway Dance.

Music for Galway’s Artistic Director, pianist Finghin Collins describes the Midwinter Festival as “a unique opportunity to delve into the life and work of one of the most exquisite and individual artists of the last century”.

He explains that Ravel was a notoriously slow worker and, therefore, not as prolific as many of his contemporaries. But his memorable compositions conjure up exotic landscapes, haunting soundscapes and complex harmonies. Ravel also knew how to challenge performers, according to Finghin, who says “many of his instrumental works are cruelly difficult and demand the highest level of artistry from musicians”.

That’s true of his solo piano pieces as well as the chamber works, most notably the sumptuous Piano Trio, which featured in the 1992 film Un Coeur en Hiver / A Heart in Winter.

Among the musicians coming to Galway to perform these works are Swiss pianist François-Xavier Poizat who is currently involved in a major project, recording all Ravel’s compositions.

François-Xavier’s offering in Galway will include the infamous cycle Gaspard de la Nuit, inspired by the poetry of Aloysius Bertrand. He will be joined for the this by Irish violinist Gwendolyn Masin and German cellist Benedict Kloeckner, who will also join forces for Ravel’s Sonata for violin and cello.

Pictured: Mezzo-soprano Gemma Ní Bhriain will be among the performers at the Midwinter Festival.