Cahal Masterson

Stillness and Structure

Con Brio are delighted to welcome back award-winning Armagh based pianist Cathal Masterson who charmed Sligo audiences when last here in 2022. The concert programme is based around Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. Composed in 1741, the Goldberg Variations were originally commissioned by Count Kaiserling for his harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg to play at night in the Count’s antechamber to soothe his insomnia. The Count was so delighted with the work that he presented Bach with a golden goblet filled with 100 Louis d’or.  The total work consists of an aria and thirty variations totalling thirty-two movements with every third variation being a canon. For the event Cathal will play selective repeats. The concert will also include Mazurkas by Chopin and a piece by Philip Hammond. Chopin wrote over 50 mazurkas all through his life from 1825 to 1849. All are piano pieces mostly written in three – four time and based on Polish folk dances. Op. 59 is a set of three Mazurkas in A minor, A flat minor, and F sharp minor. This set was composed and published in 1845. Belfast born Irish composer Philip Hammond wrote this reflective piece for piano in 2007. It is part of a series of piano pieces that according to the composer’s notes ‘started things moving again’ following personal reflection.