Kevin Burke, Irish Fiddle Recital at UW

When you walk into Brechemin Recital Hall at the University of Washington, you generally anticipate that you will manage to find a seat.  To put it bluntly, recitals aren't usually filled to maximum capacity.  So when I found myself struggling to even get through the door last Tuesday, I was pretty sure it was going to be a good evening.

Kevin Burke, international fiddler and regular performer with the Celtic Music Festival, has apparently been teaching Irish fiddle at UW for the last quarter.  I do not know the details of his stay.  I do know I'm jealous of the students who have benefited from his teaching.  Burke has fast fingers as well as wit, and the character of his playing is filled with a free-spirited, quirky story-telling. I deeply enjoy the journey that one note goes through to get to the next; far from pedantic, the melodies slurred and scooped from one to the other, all with carefully prepared clarity.

From the beginning, there was a certain sensation within the audience of wanting to move.  Of course, being a recital at a music college, no one dared to tap their feet, though we all wanted to.  About half-way through, some trepid pulse could be felt through the floor; soon several people were joining in, and naturally the hall was alive by the end of the recital.  That is what attracts me more than anything else when it comes to folk music from the British Isles.  You can't stay still; you can't keep from smiling, and the music sweeps you up so that you don't have any other sensation than the motion of the music and the energy of the people around you.

One of the things that interested me most in this recital was the combination of instruments that took place throughout.  In the first part, an ensemble including six violins, two guitars, a trumpet, penny whistle and recorder, and a metal drum, played a couple of pieces which arrangement could be best described as...interesting.  The things that stood out to me most were the effect of the six fiddles playing the same melody in unison, whereas I'm used to solo with other instruments, and the surprisingly intense modulations created by the guitars moving in contrary motion to the others. 

The next section, which consisted of fiddle tunes set for a string quartet, was probably my favorite, although honestly the texture felt oddly amateurish.  Still, it was effective; the way pizzicato was tossed back and forth from instrument to instrument; the use of the smooth transitions available in the strings themselves, as well as some sublime duet writing for the two fiddles, felt simple and effortless, ideal for the tunes' natural characters.

The final section combined fiddles and uillieann pipes in unison, which brought a small shock for me: a timbre that I'd heard many times before without really understanding what it was.  Where do the pipes leave off and the fiddle begin?  It's a mystery; you can hardly hear any divorce in the sound.  It is more like a single instrument, sweeter than the pipes, rounder than the fiddle, the effect was almost like a series of small steel balls bouncing on the ground...in neat sequences, of course.  Although the sound is entrancing in a way, it did drag on a bit for me.  The length and repetitious nature of the tunes is not one that takes well to the end of a two-hour recital when played by four instruments in unison. 

But I can hardly complain; in the end, it was only slightly more tiring in comparison with the rest of a vivid, energizing recital, and I'm very grateful I was able to attend it.

-G