KIRSTEN ALLSTAFF
Gallowglass
Online Irish Academy of Music 001
Flautist Kirsten Allstaff was
raised in Scotland and now lives in Ireland, where she co-founded the Online
Irish Academy of Music. She honors her pan-Celtic perspective with a new
project appropriately titled Gallowglass–the
name of Scottish mercenaries on the losing side of various independence
movements who relocated to Ireland and fought for Irish chieftains from the 13th
century on. Gallowglass warriors were renowned for their toughness. One hears a
bit of tenacity in Allstaff's playing, though she wields her wooden flute as more
of a velvet sword. The reel set "Sleep Sound in Da Mornin" opens with
Tony Trundel's martial bodhran, but once Allstaff eases in, he damps the
percussion to allow the flute notes to flutter like birds' wings.
Allstaff's repertoire is gleaned
from both sides of the Irish Sea, as she draws inspiration from legends past
and present such as Matt Molloy, Mary McNamara, Peter Horan, Johnny Cunningham,
Tom Anderson, and Kevin Kennedy. Her take on "March of the King of
Laoise/The Train Journey North" is a masterful mash of haunting, heavily
accented Scots-style piobaireachd and the jumpy, rapid-fire tempos favored by
Irish flautists. She also shows her Scots roots in that the album features more
reels than jigs and through her love of ornamentation, but she takes a backseat
to none when she gets her Irish up for jig sets such as "The Humours of
Ayle House." As a matter of
personal taste, I was quite taken by waltz offerings such as "Maitú's
Waltz" and her lovely cover of Johnny Cunningham's "Leaving
Brittany," a piece that the late Mr. Cunningham often used to ham it up a
bit. Allstaff, by contrast, plays the waltz with delicacy and subtlety, the
latter evidenced in her interchanges with fiddler Adam Shapiro. If that's too
tame for your blood, listen to Allstaff tear it up in "The
Mullinavat" reel set. Allstaff's breath control is amazing–we seldom hear
puffs of air, though we do hear plenty of tik-tik sounds as her fingers fly up
and down the shaft. Give this album a listen; Kirsten Allstaff is the most
exciting flautist to emerge from Ireland since Nuala Kennedy. Or is she
Scottish? It hardly matters; she's no mercenary, rather an emissary of great
music.–Rob Weir
Hear the launch party for this CD here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbkExSo6tRQ
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