Munster Social Group

The Meliora Quartet at Doneraile Court

Sun, Aug 9 · 3:00 PM IST

Doneraile Wildlife Park, Doneraile, Turnpike Road, County Cork, IE

Munster Social Group invites you to join us for a musical treat with an afternoon of chamber music from some of Ireland's most promising musical talent, the Meliora Quartet, founded in September 2024 under the guidance of Christopher Marwood at the MTU Cork School of Music. Since its formation, the quartet has performed across Cork and Kerry, including appearances for the National String Quartet Foundation in Kinsale, Kenmare, and Youghal, as well as at the NSQF Gala Concert.

This concert will take place in the beautiful setting of Doneraile Court, North Cork's "Downton Abbey", in Doneraile, Co. Cork
(Eircode: P51 XR66).

The Sunrise is perhaps the most popular of all Haydn’s wonderful string quartets. Each of its four movements is vividly characterised - the first evoking the rising of the sun, the second prayerful, the third presenting a wild dance, and the finale creating imaginative variations around a simple folksong-like theme and building to a virtuosic conclusion.

Webern’s ‘Langsamer Satz’ (slow piece) is a beautiful and passionate love song to his future wife, written in the rich late Romantic soundworld of his teacher Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht.

Pulitzer prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw took Beethoven’s quartet Op.18 No.6, as the blueprint of her 2016 quartet of that name and its transformation is both fascinating and entertaining.

The magnificent, epic, opening movement of Beethoven’s B flat major quartet Op.130 is followed by four beautifully crafted and highly contrasted inner movements, culminating in the famous Cavatina of which Beethoven wrote that he had composed it truly in the tears of melancholy. It leads into the quartet’s concluding finale, a good-natured antidote which Beethoven wrote, at his publisher’s request, as an alternative to the quartet’s original last movement, the massive Grosse Fuge.

The Meliora Quartet:

• Cillian Ó Cathasaigh, violin
• Seán Hurley, violin
• Kseniia Yershova, viola
• Alina Obreja, cello

Programme:

• Haydn - String Quartet Op.76 No.4 Sunrise [1797]
• Webern: Langsamer Satz [1905]
• Caroline Shaw - Blueprint [2016]
• Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet in B flat major Op.130 [1826]

Presented by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

Ticket Information:
Tickets (€20.00 plus €2.42 booking fee) may be purchased online here.

Notes:

• Please RSVP only when you have purchased a ticket and are committed to attending. Thank you.
• You are welcome to bring a guest.

Irish Chamber Orchestra at St Mary's Cathedral: Nature of Sound

Thu, Sep 17 · 7:30 PM IST

Saint Mary's Cathedral, Bridge Street, Limerick, LK, IE

Join Munster Social Group for an Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) performance at St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick.

The ICO will be on the road again for another mini-tour in September 2026 and perform in St. Mary's Cathedral for an evening of the Nature of Sound, in collaboration with the Comptemporary Music Centre.

Featuring:
Oliver Heath | Guest Leader/Director

Programme:

• Jane O’Leary | Strings in the Air, Songs in the Stones
• Erkki- Sven Tüür | Action
• David Fennessy | Hirta Rounds
• Jessie Montgomery | Starburst
• Elaine Agnew | The Moon
• Max Richter | On the Nature of Daylight
• Sam Perkin | Nimbus

About the Performance:
Dive into a world of sound that is immediate, atmospheric, and deeply felt. From the shimmering stillness of Jane O’Leary to the restless pulse of Erkki-Sven Tüür and the windswept landscapes of David Fennessy, each piece opens a vivid sonic landscape.

Nature flickers throughout, from the moonlit calm of Elaine Agnew’s The Moon to the drifting waves of Sam Perkin’s Nimbus as Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst flashes with electric energy. At its core, Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight draws you into quiet reflection and lingering beauty.

In collaboration with the Contemporary Music Centre, this programme marks its 40th anniversary and highlights a selection of leading Irish composers.

Tickets are available from the ICO website, available online here.

We can rendezvous pre-/post-show at the nearby Locke bar or the venue. More details closer to the date.