“‘Electric, high-octane music-making” is how Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins describes the performance of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s all-Mozart tour which visits Limerick this Wednesday, March 9.Finghin Collins is the RTÉ NSO’s first-ever Associate Artist. The current tour marks a double first for Finghin. It is his tour début with the RTÉ NSO and he has undertaken to perform the complete cycle of 23 Mozart piano concerti with the orchestra.
Finghin studied piano with John O’Connor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and with Dominique Merlet at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève. From a young age he was a multiple prize winner in national and international competitions and has collaborated with many of the finest orchestras and conductors. Limerick Post talked to Finghin this week.
Limerick Post: What excites you most about your new role as Associate Artist for the NSO?
Finghin Collins: “It is a golden opportunity to engage with the musicians of the RTE NSO in a meaningful way, over a period of three years. The orchestra is used to a guest soloist visiting for perhaps three days, playing one concert, and disappearing. With me, their first ever Associate Artist, they get the chance to embark on a long journey of discovery, with regular performances and a first ever performance with the same soloist of all 23 of Mozart’s piano concertos. Many of these works are major masterpieces, others are slighter works; all of them display mastery and beauty. As a body of work they are hugely important in the development of the piano concerto. The fact that I am directing the vast majority of these concertos from the piano, without a separate conductor, adds an extra dimension to the project, and indeed, this is how Mozart himself conceived and performed these works.”
LP: What experience can the audience expect from the upcoming UCH concert?
FC: “I think for many people in the audience, it will be their first time to see Mozart piano concertos directed from the keyboard. Instead of being in its usual side-on position, I will sit with my back to the audience (so I can communicate directly with all the musicians), with the lid removed from the piano. This in itself is an interesting spectacle! The fact that there is no conductor means that the musicians have a heightened sense of responsibility, so expect music-making of great concentration and intensity. And of course, expect some of the most beautiful music ever written, including the second movement of the C major concerto (no. 21, K. 467), immortalised in the film “Elvira Madigan”, and the horn-mimicking finale of the E flat concerto (No. 22, K. 482) which is utterly charming from start to finish. Variety, colour, grace and wit, all in one evening!”
LP: Any new projects planned that you can tell us about?
FC: “Well, this project with the RTE NSO, which is not limited to Mozart piano concertos, is the most exciting thing in my life at the moment. Next year we will move to Beethoven concertos, and perform a world premiere of a new work for piano and orchestra by Irish composer Deirdre Gribbin. Besides this, Claves Records in Switzerland have just released my new recording of Stanford’s Second Piano Concerto. This was recorded last year with the RTE NSO as well and is receiving great reviews. In April I’m off to Monte Carlo to make my debut at the Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo. And all the while I am making plans for the New Ross Piano Festival in September, of which I am Artistic Director. Never a dull moment!”
The Limerick performance by Finghin Collins and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will take place on Wednesday, March 9 in the University Concert Hall.
