I like classical music. But have no real knowledge of it so don’t as a rule review it. But that does not stop me listening to Radio 3 a good deal for its classical programming and occasionally I even go to hear classical music live. For instance, in recent years I have heard the great mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and acclaimed pianist John O’Conor.
But memory plays tricks. And until Barry Douglas performed ‘My Lagan Love’ at the end of the concert at Enniskillen’s Ardhowen theatre last night – promoted by Music in Fermanagh celebrating its 10th anniversary of staging classical concerts locally – the Belfast born icon speaking without a microphone, who won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, moved to tell us “this is by Mr Anonymous” I was convinced having sat through the concert up to that point that I hadn’t heard him at all before.
But then I knew I had, it was at the all-star Imagining Ireland Easter Rising 1916 centenary concert held at the Royal Festival Hall hosted by proud son of Enniskillen RTÉ broadcaster John Kelly when Douglas just as here had the audience in the palm of his hands when he played the song whose melody is based on a traditional air from Galway.
It’s curious how one song provokes instant recall. If he hadn’t played it I probably would still have been convinced I hadn’t ever heard him live before. That’s a worry!
There are lots of versions of the song out there – I am thinking of Van Morrison’s with the Chieftains on 1980s album Irish Heartbeat and Sinéad O’Connor’s on the much missed singer’s 2002 album Sean-Nós Nua.
Douglas recorded the song at the Curtis Auditorium and Recording Suite in Cork in 2013 including it on his album Celtic Reflections issued the following year.
It may have only been the “encore” piece but it was the part of the performance – full of powerful Prokofiev and much else – that stirred me most and took me back to that RFH concert all those years ago. In years to come this fine performance will come to replace even that, surely, in the hopefully still functioning pre-dotage memory banks. Because Douglas’ power and passion were thrilling to witness and that ancient melody full of tenderness and mystery proved a perfect oasis of quietude that had an intactness all of its own.
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