NEWSPAPER
CUTTINGS
Taken from the KQED TV station (San Francisco) web site
The Irish Tenors II: Live from Belfast
Thursday, March 9 at 8pm (repeats Sunday, March 12 at 7 and 9pm, Wednesday March 15 at 8pm)
Ronan Tynan, Anthony Kearns, and John McDermott, the trio of charmers who gave new meaning to the term "overnight sensation," return.
With a selection of songs that span a century of great Irish music, The Irish Tenors II: Live from Belfast offers a nostalgic, romantic view of Ireland's musical history, from the turn of the century to popular music featured in The Quiet Man and Riverdance. The concert is an exhilarating mix of Irish airs, lullabies, love songs, anthems, and parlor songs, with a varying style and pace that includes pathos and humor.
By popular demand, the new concert features more songs that the charismatic trio performs together, including the sports anthem "The Fields of Athenry," sung on terraces across Ireland before every soccer and rugby game, and the popular parlor songs "Percy French Medley (Phil the Fluter's Ball, Come Back Paddy Riley to Bally James Duff, and Are Ye Right There Michael?)" and "Dublin Medley (Molly Malone and Cockels and Mussels)." Of course, the tenors' encores include the beloved classic "Londonderry Air," better known as "Danny Boy."
The solo selections in The Irish Tenors: Live from Belfast offer new renditions of familiar compositions and reflect the tenors' individual styles. Phil Coulter's "Scorn Not His Simplicity," made popular by the Dubliners' recording in the 1970s and Sinéad O'Connor's in the '90s, finds its perfect interpretation in Ronan Tynan's gentle manner; Anthony Kearns brings "There Is a Flower That Bloometh" from the Irish opera Maritana into the modern canon; and John McDermott lends his distinctive styling to Randy Sparks's "Today (While the Blossoms ...)" John McDermott includes "Maggie" from his personal repertoire; Anthony Kearns's haunting rendition of "She Is Far from the Land" is a staple of his solo concert performances; and Ronan Tynan performs the sweeping Riverdance anthem "Lift the Wings," a favorite during his recent New York City cabaret concert series.
The Irish Tenors: Live from Belfast was recorded at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the 67-piece Warsaw Symphonia under the musical direction of Frank McNamara.
Anthony Kearns will appear live in the KQED studio Sunday, March 12.