The Next One


With one night to go, and much to do before myself and the boyfriend head off on holidays he asked to come out to Athenaeum House Hotel to hear a pianist play. I might have sighed and muttered something about not being a big fan of music played on a piano and if I did then I would like to take this opportunity to take it back. The pianist in question was an extremely talented man named Kieran Quinn who is currently embarking on a rather unusual tour which sees him touring all 32 counties over nine weeks playing a different piano and venue for each gig. At the moment he is mid way through the tour. The next gig is actually in Castalia which is the Camphill community in Ballytobin, Co Kilkenny in their rather beautiful concert hall.

 Anyway off we went, my boyfriend the music enthusiast and me, the sceptical one. This was the first time I set foot in Athenaeum House Hotel, which is just outside of Waterford city but as you drive up its winding drive way you feel as though you have been transported to somewhere else entirely. I'm pretty sure it can go up on my list of hotels currently outside my price range but I am okay with that seeing as I am highly unlikely to find myself staying in a hotel that's less than 10 minutes away from my apartment. As you walk in the doors you can see the piano lounge, just beyond the reception area. Feeling very grown up altogether we made ourselves comfortable with a pot of peppermint tea and waited for the performance to begin.

 I will admit I didn't know much about Kieran before this gig. Naturally I have since been on Facebook and seen that he is quite highly regarded and that his tour so far has been very well recieved and in retrospect this made me more appreciative of the unique performance we witnessed. He sat down to play in a well fitting suit which I thought made for a good start. If you are going to perform in a Georgian House then you may as well look dapper.
I was drawn in immediately once he began to play, the music was surprisingly evocative and I found at times I was getting lost in it. In the first song I was certain I heard the melody from Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book) embedded in the song and I was almost nervous asking if I was correct in case it wasn't and I exposed myself as a philistine. Seeing as I am still working on filtering what I am thinking and what I actually say out loud I blurted out the question and it seems I was right. I don't think I realised before that piano music can be playful as well as sombre. I have probably given away the extent to which I listen to that sort of thing. I think somewhere it has been embedded in me that the piano is a purely classical instrument and not being much of a fan of that sort of thing I didn't explore this much further. Tonight I realised that it has the potential to be far more versatile an instrument than I could have imagined.
The music managed to be moving but at times whimsical. It did help that the Piano Lounge in Athenaeum House Hotel has high ceilings and great acoustics so the music seemed to swell to fill the space. I was very impressed by the speed at which he played and the way at times it sounded like more than one instrument being played. 

 I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I left wanting to hear more. It should hardly be surprising to me at this stage that the nights in which I am most reluctant to be out are the ones I end up enjoying the most 

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