A few days before her first concert in Malta, Irish violinist Fionnuala Hunt speaks to David Schembri about Irish classical music, tango and everything in between.
Fionnuala HuntIrish folk music is characterised by the lilts and reels of the fiddle or the tin whistle.
For Belfast-born Fionnuala Hunt, however, her violin has always been of the classical variety. Having studied at the Ulster College of Music, the Royal College of Music in London and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, from where she graduated with first class honours, Hunt is firmly rooted in the classical tradition, in which she has flourished.
Throughout her career, she has played with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and was co-leader of the RTE Symphony Orchestra in Dublin for three years.
She has also been a guest leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The highlight of her career so far has been leading the World Orchestra for Peace under the baton of Valery Gergiev at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, London
The highlight of her career so far has been leading the World Orchestra for Peace under the baton of Valery Gergiev at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, London.
She is also undeniably Irish, starting from her looks and going on to her name, which knows its roots in Celtic mythology and is pronounced Feu-nou-la. “That’s ‘feu’ as in French for ‘fire’,” she writes from Dublin, where she is about to give a concert in two days.
It’s the Royal Irish Academy’s Chamber Ensemble (ACE) debut at the National Concert Hall in a few days. Shortly after, Hunt, along with pianist Hugh Tinney and cellist Christopher Marwood, also members of the ACE, will be performing at the Bir Miftuħ International Music Festival.
Hunt says of her first Malta performance: “I am really looking forward to it. Our visit is part of Culture Ireland’s programme, marking Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“The venue, the historic 15th-century church of Santa Marija ta’ Bir Miftuħ, looks fascinating and we are particularly delighted to be participating at the festival.”
Fittingly for a musical ambassador of the Emerald Isle, Hunt has also recorded a CD of Irish music called Irish Fantasy with her sister Una. She used to play some folk music for fun when she was younger, and recently she commissioned Bill Whelan, the composer of Riverdance, to write a piece called Inislaken for her and a traditional fiddle player, which saw her enter crossover territory.
The Irish music on offer on Friday, however, is resolutely classical, with pieces by the 18th-19th-century classical composer John Field and the contemporary Ian Wilson taking pride of place in the varied programme, giving an outlet to composers who do not get much of a hearing on the Maltese stage.
“Field was the inventor of the nocturne and is very probably Ireland’s most renowned composer internationally. The B flat major Nocturne, which Hugh will perform, is probably the best known and most loved of all the nocturnes. It is a very beautiful work,” Hunt says.
Wilson, like Hunt, is from Belfast, and has already made quite a mark internationally. His compositions have been performed and broadcast in six continents and presented at festivals, including the BBC Proms, Venice Biennale and Frankfurt Book Fair, and at venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore Halls, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
“This particular piece is very atmospheric,” the violinist says of For Eileen, After Rain, which will be performed on the night.
With Irish rain getting its fair representation in proceedings, the evening will also feature Astor Piazzolla’s Summer from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Antonin Dvorák’s Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90, Dumky.
“I am very passionate about tango music and love Piazzola’s music in particular. And to me, the Dumky Trio by Dvorák is one of the great chamber music works,” Hunt says of the programme.
Her dedication to this variety of styles comes to the fore in her discography, which counts a solo CD called Tango and Dances and three other releases with the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
She will also be touching upon the different facets of her musical output this summer in a series of four concerts at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, “each of which reflects a different aspect of my career so far: directing a chamber orchestra, tango quartet, Irish classical music and an international piano quartet”.Her performances with the ACE have taken her, Tinney and Marwood, to China and all across Ireland, where they perform regularly, and she encourages her Maltese audience to “listen and look for the interaction between the musicians”.
Should the audience’s gaze wander from the Irish virtuosos at work, eyes are bound to rest upon the lovingly-restored splendour of the 15th-century chapel, which is one of the best-preserved on the island, and which opens only for two-and-a-half hours every month.
Rare sights, then, for rarely-heard sounds.
Fionnuala Hunt will be performing as part of the Academy Chamber Ensemble on Friday at the chapel of Santa Marija of Bir Miftuħ, as part of the Bir Miftuħ International Music Festival. The concert is being held by Din l-Art Ħelwa and the Irish Embassy in Malta.