Bittersweet symphony

LONDONDERRY composer Kevin O'Connell took his exploration of classical music that started in the record library of the Waterside 35 years ago to the National Concert Hall in Dublin yesterday afternoon when his first symphony was premièred by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Gavin Maloney.

Kevin was born in Londonderry in December 1958 and studied piano and harmony with Michael Hoeg, organist of St. Columb's Cathedral.

He went on to study music at St Columb's College and Trinity College Dublin and received his first professional performance in 1982 at the age of 30.

Speaking ahead of yesterday's performance he said: "The symphony doesn't really give you anywhere to hide. Even when you are writing a quiet passage, or a passage that seems like it's marking time relative to the rest of the structure, there's still got to be a kind of tension in it. To that extent, I think, writing a symphony makes you rather neurotic.

"It's not like an opera, where there is room for certain kinds of dodge...because of the story, or going into something that slows the thing down or takes it in a different direction. You have got to keep everything between rather narrow tracks. Maybe that's one reason for doing it."