Ireland

Journey with The Chieftains to the special places and people of the home counties that formed the band's musical soul. Derek Bell, Kevin Conneff, Martin Fay, Sean Keane, Matt Molloy and Paddy Moloney tell the tales of their earliest memories of Irish music. Their thoughtful and often amusing stories capture the emotion behind the scenes of every performance.

This triptych of British violin sonatas bears a wartime theme. Ireland’s A minor famously elevated his name to prestige on its 1917 premiere, whereas the sonatas by Geoffrey Bush - this is its premiere recording - and Franz Reizenstein date from 1945.

John Ireland was something of a child prodigy, entering the Royal College of Music at the age of fourteen. There he studied piano, organ and composition (under Charles Villiers Stanford). He quickly progressed to significant positions as an organist, whilst continuing to pursue his interests as a composer. The Forgotten Rite, from 1913, is one of his earliest orchestral compositions, and was premièred by Sir Henry Wood at the Queen’s Hall.

Celtic Woman's new album represents the sentiment they would like to share with their fans around the world. One of love, hope and expectation as the world looks towards getting back together again. What better way to express these wishes than to write and send a postcard, but this postcard is written with the music and songs from Celtic Woman's latest album. Postcards from Ireland features 13 brand-new songs and is the group's first new studio album since 2018's Ancient Land.

This is not such a bizarre cross-over as one might imagine for in the 18th century the great Irish musician Turlough O’Carolan, a blind harpist, met the Italian musician Geminiani in Dublin, and through him encountered the music of, yes, guess who, Antonio Vivaldi. So here we have a case of substituting Irish instruments for baroque ones, using baroque instruments to accompany Irish themes, by creating dialogues between Celtic and baroque instruments, or by letting all the musicians improvise. One moment we appear to be listening to a ‘straight’ baroque concerto, then all of a sudden the conventional string continuo/ripieno of the baroque ensemble (Le Orfanelle della Pieta) gives way to celtic musicians playing a jig or reel on anything from a Irish bouzouki to a fiddle. The baroque group consists of three each of first and second violins, one viola, two cellos, a bass and harpsichord while the Irish musicians play Irish fiddle, an Irish flute (like a baroque flute), tin and low whistles, Uileann pipes, Irish bouzouki, mandolins, bodhran, bones, and the Celtic harp (played here with metal strings to resemble its harpsichord counterpart in the other group).

This recording features of variety of Irish and Scottish airs and dance tunes, some dating back to the 17th and 18th century harp repertoire as well as recent compositions, performed on harps, concertina, whistle and bouzouki.

The Dubliners - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (1969) {EMI Music Ireland CDRAH I rel 2006}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 352 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 124 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 49 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 2006 EMI Music Ireland | CDRAH I
Folk / Irish Folk / Traditional Irish Folk / Celtic / Drinking Songs

As good as they are on their records, the Dubliners are essentially performance artists who are at their best in front of an audience – in this case an extraordinarily large one, doing most of their best-known songs (many of which remain identified with them 40 years later). The sound is surprisingly good, and the spirits are overflowing, and the entire record makes a fine follow-up/companion to the mid-'60s In Concert album and the live Finnegan Wakes. It's the tracks off of this album, as much as the studio originals, that have filled up many a compilation on the Dubliners in the decades since.