Lynda O’Connor: The Irish Four Seasons

The Strad Issue: January 2025

Description: An Irish violinist makes herself heard in an impossibly crowded field

Musicians: Lynda O’Connor (violin) Anamus/David Brophy

Works: McDonagh: The Irish Four Seasons. Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

Catalogue number: AVIE AV2688

With such a teeming mass of Four Seasons recordings out there, the question has become less about how to play the concertos, more about how to treat them. In the case of Dublin-born violinist Lynda O’Connor, that treatment is to pair them with the distinctively Irish Four Seasons, written for her by her compatriot Ailbhe McDonagh (see August’s Session Report). O’Connor stresses connections between Baroque and Irish traditional musics in her booklet interview, and they’re clear, too, in her nimble, liquid traversal of the Vivaldi concertos, and also in the freedom with which she approaches the music.

At times, her heavy, ornate decorations might get a bit too much, as do some of the performance decisions for the ad hoc string ensemble Anamus (sudden Bartók snap pizzicatos in ‘Autumn’ come as a bit of a shock). But they also give her account a particularly rich character, one matched by her bright sound and her winning sense of heartfelt authenticity.

Occasionally, McDonagh’s Irish Four Seasons veers dangerously close to Vivaldi’s original (and also to Max Richter’s 2012 Recomposed), but it’s nonetheless a beautifully judged, rewarding melding of Irish-style tunes and Baroque-style settings, from the shapely phrases in O’Connor’s pregnant solo opening to ‘Earrach’ (‘Spring’) to the unearthly, icy purity of ‘Geimhreadh’ (‘Winter’).

Although the musical pairing and O’Connor’s performance offer much to enjoy, recorded sound – very close, noticeably artificially balanced, and with very little resonance – is less convincing.

DAVID KETTLE