Drogheda Arts Festival and Drogheda Classical Music present
Consolation after Covid: Music written in response to loss
When Pauline Ashwood of the Drogheda Classical Music Series was asked to put together a concert for the Drogheda Arts Festival she wanted to appeal to as broad an audience as possible so she turned to her friend Prof Des O’Neill, who marries his knowledge of medicine with his love of music.
“Our musical choices are often dictated by mood, and music is so powerful it can trigger memories to particular times or places but most significantly it can be hugely powerful in helping people deal with difficulties.
“As we come to live with Covid and learn to get over the negative impacts it has had on us all, I invited Dr O’Neill to look at music that could bring Consolation after Covid, and he chose works that were written in response to loss.
“I have long been an admirer of Prof Des O’Neill, who marries his love of medicine with his love of music. As a specialist in gerontology, he is well-versed in ability in older age and has presented many concerts in the National Concert Hall programming composers who have excelled in later years of life.”
This Saturday, April 30 at 7:30pm, the Ficino Ensemble (Elaine Clarke, violin, Siun Milne, violin, Nathan Sherman, viola and Ailbhe McDonagh, cello) will perform a programme of works focussed on music written in response to loss.
With such a wealth of works to select from, the programme focusses on three chamber works by Puccini, Shostakovich and Beethoven.
Covid-19 has had a detrimental effect on society and so this concert includes a pre-concert talk by Prof O’Neill to look at how music can offer consolation in these dark times.
The concert features Puccini’s short elegy Crisantemi which was written in response to the death of the composer’s friend aged just 44. Shostakovich’s mesmerising and devastating Quartet No. 8 was written in just three days and was dedicated to the victims of fascism and war.
The music explores the complex aesthetics of the darkest aspects of human experience: sorrow, terror, death, shock and grief. While Beethoven’s Quartet was the first quartet that he wrote after his life-changing 1802 visit to Heiligenstadt where he came to terms with his own impending death and his fears around his deafness.
The concert takes place in the beautiful setting of Gerrard’s Church on Mary’s Street on Sat 30 April at 7:30pm with a pre-concert talk by Prof Des O’Neill at 7:00. Tickets are €18 (€15 conc.) and can be purchased by clicking here
