Elizabeth Cooney/Redmond O’Toole, ST BARRAHANE’S, CASTLETOWNSHEND, 6th August 2009
Perfect music for a Summer evening was what these gifted artists, one a violinist, the other a guitarist, provided in the third Thursday night concert of this year’s Festival in the lovely West Cork village. This was the final concert of a seven-venue tour and both players were at the top of their form, playing with seemingly effortless virtuosity, perfect balance, thoughtful, sensitive phrasing, great variety of tone, and excellent interpretation, in easy-listening music that spanned four centuries.
The clarity of O’Toole’s part playing, and his variation of tone colour in the Fantasie by John Dowland (1563-1626) impressed from the start and his accompaniment of Cooney’s Baroque-style tone in Dowland songs was most sensitive. They followed these with three works for violin and guitar by Paganini, a virtuoso player of both instruments, and Nathan Milstein’s virtuosic variations on a Paganini theme. Cooney’s technical brilliance and wonderfully warm tone in each of these fireworks-filled showpieces was matched by splendidly supportive accompaniment.
The growth in the maturity of O’Toole’s playing was especially evident in Torroba’s Suite Castelliana and de Falla’s Homenaje a Debussy. Crystal clear articulation, strong rhythms, lovely dynamic contrasts and constant awareness of atmosphere and colour marked these gripping performances.
The repetitive, rather bleak, forgettable ‘Spillaert’s Beach’, written for this duo by Sligo-based Ian Wilson (b. 1964) proved tedious but their extremely free interpretation of Granados’ well-known Andaluza restored the spirits. This was wonderfully intimate, sincere playing. Elegant, superb transcriptions of de Falla’s Six Popular Spanish Songs played with understanding, warmth, passion and character almost brought this splendid concert to an end, but then they added a hauntingly beautiful transcription of the Adagio from Rodrigo’s Concierto des Aranjuez that was quite spell-binding.
Declan Townsend, Irish Examiner, August 2009
November 08 Tour with the RTE NSO and conductor Vladimir Altschuler
'Elizabeth Cooney's playing of Dvorak's Violin Concerto was a dream..Cooney discovered riches in the music that I had forgotten..Cooney's marvellously varied tone,
superb phrasing and subtly differentiated vibrato ensured that one concentrated on the gorgeous tunes on offer and forgot any critically perceived weaknesses in the music's construction.'
Declan Townsend, Irish Examiner, November 27, 2008
National Concert Hall, Dublin. Dvorak Concerto with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Altschuler, conductor, November 14th 2008
'A packed house for this concert...a glowing account of Dvorak's slow movement by Cork-born soloist Elizabeth Cooney who went on to make a fine showing of
of upbeat virtuosity in the finale.'
Andrew Johnstone, Irish Times, 18th November 2008
Concert at the Cork School of Music, May 25th 2008
"Cooney displayed her unbelievable skills confirming the presence of a world class artist"
Gerry Quinn, Irish Examiner, 30th May, 2008
Brighton Festival, May 2008
"The night before, more mysticism at a Messiaen Anniversary Concert. The French composer was honoured in a performance of his Quatuor pour la fin du temps, played with robust commitment by Finghin Collins (piano), Elizabeth Cooney (violin), Richard Harwood (cello) and Carol McGonnell (clarinet). And for those players, the Belfast-born composer Ian Wilson had written a "setting" of the Gabriel Garcia Márquez short story, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.
With Gavin Friday as narrator, it received its UK premiere in a packed Corn Exchange: sand-ripples of meandering lines and sea-sprays of song and tremolo, in a cunning score that never upstaged, but was as impassioned as the words themselves.
- Hilary Finch, The Times, 21st May
Sally Pryce Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, March 08.
"The music making was of the highest order and we were treated to something very special."
"Such was the power, insight and commitment of the musicians (Debussy's two Danses for harp and string quartet) that it was hard to believe that we were only listening to a string quartet and not a full body of strings supporting the harp. An excellent and most satisfying performance". "This music (Ravel's Introduction and Allegro) is extrovert and fantastic, truly virtuosic and a sheer joy. It brought the house down."
- Bill Briggs, Music Web International
29th June, 2007, Recital with Matthew Schellhorn, piano at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, Oxford
"This was a wonderfully inspiring concert by two young consummate musicians totally in tune with each other and playing music that they
clearly love.'
'Elizabeth Cooney's interpretation of Poulenc's Sonata for Violin and Piano recalled Ginette Neveu's own playing and she gave the impression
throughout of conveying the spirit of the composer and the dedicatee to the audience.'
'Her intonation in the Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano was superb throughout and also I was very struck by her musicality, her clear understanding of the very varied music and her strong instinct to communicate this to the audience."
- David Dunsmore, musicweb-international.com
Cooney, RTÉ, NSO/Anissimov. National Concert Hall Dublin 26 June 2007
"..her dashing and fluent playing of the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso by Saint-Saens communicated the gratifying sense of an easy and decisive victory over some considerable technical challenges."
- Andrew Johnstone, Irish Times 28 June 07
Sally Pryce Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, 5 December 2006
“This enterprising programme under the auspices of the Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT) showcased five talented musicians, their common denominator being Sally Pryce’s harp. ...... Pryce particularly sensitive in the delicate Andante, then playing off Elizabeth Cooney to good effect in the final Allegro...... The clean textures were helped by Cooney and Reiad Chibah’s sensitive string-playing....... the first movement Allegrissimo, where an effervescent flute melody from Walker was taken up enthusiastically by Pryce, before a bluesy intervention from Cooney’s violin, suitably exaggerated.”
- Ben Hogwood. www.classicalsource.com
Rising Star Debut Recital, National Concert Hall, Dublin
"The devilish trilling effects in the Tartini, both
those devised by Tartini and those by Kreisler held no
fears for her...Wieniawski's Polonaise showed her delighting in
technical fireworks...Nathan Milstein's arrangement of an early Chopin
Nocturne showed a style of lyrical violin tone with a
range of inflection and also a successful moulding of
line and mood"
- Michael Dervan, Irish Times, 17th Feb, 2006
“Elizabeth Cooney's star status catapulted from 'rising' to 'risen' when she enchanted a capacity audience at the NCH last Wednesday week. Much attention was given in pre-concert discourse to the colossal programme she had endeavoured to take on - four full sonatas, including Kreisler's daunting 'Devil's Trill' arrangement of Tartini's G minor sonata. Cooney breezed through this labyrinth of notes as she would her daily scales. She channelled into a different gear for her Beethoven, demonstrating a mature understanding of the sonata for what it is - a duo with piano. The Ravel and Prokofiev sonatas gave rise to Cooney's finest display, encompassing a wide spectrum of articulation and effect. It was most notably in these works that Cooney embraced a wonderful senza vibrato (without vibrato) sound.
Many violinists either shy away from this most primary of colours or simply cannot achieve it without conscious effort, but Cooney's vibrato, in general, was never arbitrary, the use of it as consciously beautiful as the absence thereof. Praise must of course be given to pianist, Daniel Hill, a fantastically capable musician in his own right. As an accompanist, he couldn't be faulted and he boasts nothing less than the technical prowess that marks Cooney's playing. Success is written in the stars for this duo.”
- Karen Dervan, Sunday Tribune 26 February 2006
Edinburgh Fringe Festival / Royal Overseas League House
“Elizabeth Cooney gave a wonderfully flowing reading of Mozart's Violin Sonata in B flat major. Cooney and fellow violinist Jane Gordon then offered a couple of Handel sonatas and brought out the delicate intricacy and beauty of their dovetailing parts 9 (...) fresh emotional energy and imagination to make the music sound as if it was freshly minted, rather than more than three centuries old.”
- Jan Fairley, The Scotsman, 23 August 2005
National Concert Hall, Dublin / RTE Concert Orchestra
“Of particular note was the performance of young violinist Elizabeth Cooney. Once again, she gave notice of an increasing maturity and stature with performances that were in turn exquisitely sensitive and heartfelt (Massenet's Meditation) and then thrilling and tempestuous (Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy)”. These are crowd pleasers to begin with, but Cooney delivered with an assured style and technique that caught the imagination. Not even a stubborn string problem before the Carmen suite got under way succeeded in flustering Cooney who is a star in the making.”
- Sunday Business Post, 2 August 2005
“Elizabeth Cooney was the violin soloist in the "Méditation" from Massenet's "Thaïs" and Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy", works that test the soloist's technical and musical mettle in very different ways. With poised eloquence in the Massenet and plenty of fireworks in the Sarasate, Cooney was evidently in command of those essential aspects (…)she always made a pleasing sound, and consistently conveyed the extraordinary energy of Bizet's themes. She is a player whose progress will be worth watching.”
- Martin Adams, Irish Times, 5 August 2005
“Here is a musician who is intelligent, sensitive and creates wonderfully constructed musical lines, who is as much at home with Bach as with Paginini (...) with beautiful moments in the 24th Caprice.”
- La Libre Belgique, Martine D. Mergeay, 8 May 2005
Tzar Records “Debut” album
“The young Cornish pianist Daniel Hill accompanies her in Brahms's Second Sonata, a rich and thoughtful performance, while Wieniawski's Fantasy on 'Faust' demonstrates her remarkable virtuosity. Robert Schumann's First Sonata and a Romance by Clara Schumann complete this fine disc.”
- Ian Fox, Sunday Tribune 28 March 2005
National Concert Hall, Dublin / National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland / Josep Caballe Domenech
“Irish violinist Elizabeth Cooney, now based in London, joined the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and played Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5 with the same calm assurance that she had demonstrated at the RTÉ finals in 2000. What has matured most noticeably since then is the quality of her tone. She has a fine instrument - a Nicolaus Gagliano on loan to her from the Royal College of Music - but the deft control of phrasing and articulation are her own. Her best playing came in the song-like Adagio, in which her response seemed at its most relaxed and open-hearted. She played the fast outer movements with grace and lively agility while appearing to exercise a degree of deferential restraint.”
- Michael Dungan, Irish Times, June 2004
Royal Festival Hall Recital, London
“It was an outstanding reading which realised all the alternating drama and lyricism of the piece (….) She is a talent to watch”.
- Tully Potter, The Strad, February 2004
