Artistic Director Peter Whelan told David Hennessy about The Irish Baroque Orchestra becoming only the second Irish orchestra in history to perform at the BBC Proms.
The Irish Baroque Orchestra will this year become only the second Irish orchestra in history to perform at the BBC Proms, and the first in nearly 50 years.
They will be performing Handel’s Alexander’s Feast on 30 August at the Royal Albert Hall. Their performance will be a special version that Handel prepared for a Dublin performance in 1742.
This exemplifies the IBO’s mission to bring Ireland’s own classical music tradition to audiences today, and hence they are reclaiming Alexander’s Feast through this lens and bringing awareness of Dublin’s rich musical heritage to such a huge and well-established audience.
Artistic Director Peter Whelan of the Irish Baroque Orchestra Peter Whelan told The Irish World: “It’s a big deal.
“It’s a huge festival, as you know, and orchestras from the Republic have hardly ever been there, only once before so it’s just a great coup for us.
“It just feels great.
“There’s a lot of excitement behind it from Irish people everywhere that the work we’re doing is recognised like this.
“We’re really looking forward to it and there’s a great buzz already.
“It’s all very exciting.
“The proms is maybe the biggest classical music festival in the world.
“It’s a huge venue and lots of people get to hear you but it also has kind of a festival vibe and there’s people standing there enjoying themselves.
“There’s people having picnics at the very back of the Albert Hall and there’s people in the nice boxes, so there’s all different kinds of people listening to you.
“It’s a big celebration and it puts us on to another level we haven’t been before, a really, really huge stage so it’s very exciting.”
Does it feel like history being made?
“Yeah, it is a historic moment but it’s also nice for us, Irish classical musicians.
“I always felt when I was a kid growing up that classical music was something that belonged to other people, to other countries and not so much to Ireland but the work we’ve been doing shows the kind of music that would have been happening in Ireland, when Handel was there, and what the musicians were up to in Dublin at the time and the music that they would have played.
“So we have our own heritage in classical music that stretches back as far as any other European country.
“It’s just nice that people recognise that and that Ireland is a classical music force to be reckoned with as well as everywhere else.”
46-year-old Peter has been Artistic Director of the orchestra for six years but played with it for 20 years before that.
The Olivier Award-winning Irish Baroque Orchestra is celebrated as Ireland’s flagship period instrument orchestra and delivers world-class historically-informed performances across Ireland and abroad.
As an ambassador for the stories of Ireland’s musical past, the IBO uses its unique perspective to develop the growing store of knowledge surrounding the very early days of Baroque and Classical music in Ireland.
The IBO’s research, recordings and performances offer audiences across Ireland a new opportunity to reevaluate and reclaim their cultural heritage, while also engaging the Irish diaspora through the increasing global reach of this work.
Handel’s Alexander Feast, and this special version, shows your mission to showcase Ireland’s musical history, isn’t it?
“Exactly, in primary school I remember we had these history books and it had double pages about little bits of history and one of them was Handel coming to Dublin to perform Messiah in his big wig.
“I’ve just always been really fascinated and taken by that and trying to go to Fishamble Street where it took place.
“There’s not much to look at these days but it just kind of lit my imagination and a lot of my adult life as a musician I’ve been working all around the world but at a certain point I came back to that and tried to discover more about what was going on in Ireland at the time.
“It’s been just a wonderful journey and so many people are interested in what happened in Ireland.
“It’s good to have some Irish culture that isn’t always related to Patrick’s Day and drinking, it expands another part of our culture that maybe not so many people knew about.
“When Handel came to Ireland, he gave the very first performance of Messiah ever.
“He had been having a terrible time when he was in London.
“The press had turned on him and his health was failing him and it seemed like the whole world was turning against him.
“He had some Irish musician friends who invited him over and his trip to Ireland kind of represented a big turn in his fortunes so he was always very thankful to Ireland. Had very good, good memories of that.
“But he also, apart from Messiah, he played lots of different works of his and some of the works he played, he adjusted them for Irish audiences.
“This is an example of that.
“Alexander’s Feast, we’re going to do the Dublin version from 1742 which hasn’t been heard since that time so it’s a slightly different version of a piece that classical music audiences would know quite well but it has a an Irish slant to it too.”
It was not that long ago you brought Messiah to Wigmore Hall..
“That’s right.
“What we do with the Irish Baroque Orchestra is try to make audiences feel like they’re hearing it for the very first time.
“We tried to bring a certain freshness to the piece so it always gets a very good reaction.
“The version we did in the Wigmore Hall is very like the first one that would have happened in Fishamble Street so it’s kind of a smaller group of people but the impact is much punchier for the audience.
“We had a really great reaction.
“Actually, I think the Chief Rabbi of London was there and he said it was the best Messiah he’d ever heard so we were very honoured by that.
“We’re only the second group from the Republic of Ireland who’ve been invited to the Proms so it’s a really special moment for our musicians and for Irish music making in general, that we get to step onto this big stage.
“We’re very proud of the work we’re doing and we’re just shining the torch.
“Ireland is a country that’s always punched above its weight in the arts and when it comes to singing and music and literature.
“Maybe now we’re beginning to show that we can also represent classical music and our own heritage in classical music, that we can own that too.
“For me and for the orchestra, it feels like a very proud moment.”
Are changing politics regarding British- Irish relations be part of a reason why Irish groups have so rarely been invited to play at the Proms?
“I guess that could be the case.
“The relationship is in a good place.
“But ultimately music is something that goes beyond barriers.
“It is nice to be recognised for the work that we’re doing and telling the story of classical music in Ireland which is new to a lot of people and new to a lot of Irish people as well.
“I think that’s the big factor.”
Among the orchestra’s achievements to date is an Olivier Award.
“We were in the Royal Opera House and we are touring more and more across Europe.
“We appear in London a lot as well, in the Handel Festival and at the Wigmore Hall and all the rest of it.
“We have tours next year coming up in America.
“It’s just great to share the message and the enthusiasm that our musicians have.
“It’s a good moment for us and it’s nice that other people are recognising the work that we do.
“The awards are all great but the music making is where it’s stemming from.”
Was it always music that spoke to you?
“Yeah, it was. I love music since I was a kid.
“The primary school I went to in Celbridge the music was very strong.
“There were teachers there who were singing in folk groups.
“I remember just thinking that was the best thing ever and that sparked my imagination and I guess kind of a love for history as well.
“I became interested in older kinds of music and that’s where I caught the bug, as it were.”
Peter studied in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin and then Trinity College.
He then furthered his studies in Switzerland before coming to the UK first being based in Edinburgh and then London.
“I suppose I spent a lot of my life living out of suitcase a few months a year in Ireland but my base is in London now.”
Peter, and other members of the orchestra, are based in London.
“We like to represent all kinds of Irish musicians so musicians living in Ireland and then Irish musicians who live and work in London and further afield.
“There’s always, with Irish, a big diaspora.
“We’re spread everywhere but there’s a kind of a unity in the work that we’re doing.
“So on stage, there’ll be a mixture of all different kinds of Irish musicians there.”
Is it undoubtedly the greatest highlight you’ve had so far with the Irish Baroque Orchestra?
“Yeah, I would say without a doubt this is the pinnacle of what we’ve done so far so just really, really looking forward to it.”
What’s next?
“Who knows? We still have work to do. There’s plenty more music to discover and the more we look and the more people are interested, the more classical music that shows up with an Irish interest so there’s plenty more to go.
“We’re just enjoying the journey for now but this definitely feels like a highlight and it will be hard to top this Proms appearance.
“We’ll see what happens afterwards. Focus on this first and we’ll do our best job first and then see what comes after.”
You spoke about growing up and feeling that classical music belonged to someone else or other countries, couldn’t this ‘historical’ moment inspire some budding musicians and show that that’s not the case? That Ireland has its own proud history in classical music?
“You’re absolutely right.
“It’s a big moment for Ireland in the arts with actors like Paul Mescal and all the rest of it.
“But I think we’re trail blazers in terms of balancing out the rest of the world, finding the artistic side of things, finding the middle ground and leading the way with that.
“Hopefully this will be another thing, another aspect that we can be proud of as well, tying in classical music on top of everything else.”
Peter has been overwhelmed by the reaction to the news.
“There’s been so much interest coming from across London, from different Irish groups, the embassy, Culture Ireland and the rest seem to be really behind it.
“It’s shaping up to be kind of a big, big celebration, basically so I’m looking forward to seeing what traction that gets too.”
The Irish Baroque Orchestra play the Royal Albert Hall on 30 August.
For more information about the Irish Baroque Orchestra, click here.
The BBC Proms runs 18 July- Saturday 13 September.
