Finale | One last Octet

The Finale of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival 2026 opens with ‘Keening’ by Donnacha Dennehy sung by Lotte Betts-Dean, a chant in memory of all the innocent victims of the brutal and senseless massacres and wars in our time. The commission fee goes to Médecins Sans Frontières, the doctors without borders who go where they are needed. Bartók’s 5th Quartet opens with a great shout of anger at the unfolding horrors of Central Europe in the 1930’s. Its five movements are highly accessible, two powerful outer movements enclosing two mysterious slow movements, in turn enclosing a high-spirited Scherzo.

Lera Auerbach is a prodigiously talented Soviet-born pianist-composer who moved to New York when only 18. Her ‘Lonely Suite’ speaks from experience, alone in a foreign country with only her music. Delta Trio have worked closely with her on recording her piano trios and can catch her wild combination of anger and beauty and willingness to take risks. Her 3rd Trio is a highly theatrical piece with extreme contrasts and no holding back.

Traditionally the Festival finishes with the Bantry House stage crammed with string players, which necessitates a dramatic exit by the Steinway D down the garden steps to make space for 8 string players. The 16-year-old Mendelssohn’s Octet is a perennial favourite for musicians and audiences sending everyone home in a blaze of light.