Frank Corcoran

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra at National Concert Hall | Live Review
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Soloist Martin Johnson, freed from his usual duties as leader of the cello section, appears for a work
written much later in more ways that one. Composed nearly two hundred years after Mendelssohn’s
overture, and by a man more than half a century older, Frank Corcoran’s brand new cello concerto is an
extraordinary test of musicianship and virtuosity for Johnson, and it is a miraculous portrayal. Having
heard Johnson performing Gráinne Mulvey’s cello concerto a couple of months ago, where the cellist is
(perhaps intentionally) engulfed by the orchestra in a cacophonous losing battle, puts the pin-sharp
orchestration of Corcoran’s massive work into perspective; the cello is never once lost beneath the
massive forces behind him. It is emotionally meaningful and formally impressive, a concerto on the
symphonic scale of the Dvorak concerto namechecked by the composer in his lengthy, unpretentious
and entertaining programme note.