The Gealán Quartet open their programme this autumn with a series of evocative miniatures from Ireland, Spain and Italy, their concerts culminating in Mendelssohn’s powerful F minor quartet.

Cork composer Sam Perkin wrote his celebratory short quartet A Gathering for the opening of the 2025 West Cork Chamber Music Festival. He wrote: Are we in a barn, a pub, or at a chamber music festival? Regardless, our shared love of music and conviviality is woven throughout. In the spirit of fun and joy, we dance in celebration of The Musician. We honour all those who have come before and all those who will come after us.

Turina’s Bullfighter’s Prayer portrays the contrast between the chaotic, festive atmosphere of a Madrid bullfight and the toreador praying for his safety. The music is unmistakably Spanish but also owes much to French impressionism.

Puccini’s Crisantemi is a moving elegy written in 1890 as a tribute on the death of Amadeo I of Spain, a son of the Italian King, Vittorio Emanuele II.

Mendelssohn wrote his F minor quartet in homage to his sister Fanny who had died a few weeks previously. The impassioned emotional turmoil of the first two movements gives way to a weeping lament in the slow movement and then to a fiery, virtuosic finale, perhaps a tribute to the brilliance of Fanny’s own string quartet writing.

Gealán Quartet

Gina Maria McGuinness, violin
Eoin Ducrot, violin
Fiachra de hOra, viola
Paul Grennan, cello

The Programme

Sam Perkin – A Gathering [2025]
Turina – La Oración Del Torero [1925]
Puccini – Crisantemi [1890]
Mendelssohn – String Quartet in F minor Op.80 [1847]