Annette Cleary (cello) Reamonn Keary (piano) Barry McGovern (narrator)

Richard Strauss - Enoch Arden

Tennyson’s epic poem Enoch Arden tells the tale of a sailor who embarks on a voyage in order to provide for his wife and children. He is shipwrecked, not unlike the character of Robinson Crusoe, and returns home many years later to find that his wife is re-married to a childhood friend and rival. Richard Strauss’s melodramatic setting of the poem was hugely successful in its day. Composed for the distinguished actor and director Ernst von Possart, whose influence helped Strauss secure the job of chief conductor of the Munich Court Opera, the pair toured Germany with the piece in 1897 to great acclaim. Annette Cleary and Réamonn Keary have reworked the original piano score, enriching the music with the addition of the cello. Strauss was simultaneously writing the cello-dominated tone poem Don Quixote at the time of composing Enoch Arden and the cello fits very naturally into the musical texture of the melodrama. The renowned actor Barry McGovern brings the Victorian narrative to life with characteristic dramatic aplomb.

Annette Cleary and Réamonn Keary have been performing as a cello and piano duo for several years. In addition to exploring the standard repertoire they also specialise in rediscovering works that have unfairly fallen into obscurity, in particular works by female composers. In 2018, in the first Sounding the Feminists series at the NCH, they performed a cello sonata by the much-neglected Leokadiya Kashperova, and in a concert in August 2020 in Berlin they resurrected from obscurity the wonderful sonata by Melanie Bonis. Recently they arranged the Rita Strohl cello sonata to include narrator Barry McGovern with commissioned text by poet Josephine Collins. Annette and Réamonn also enjoy arranging songs for their combination of instruments; past performances have included arrangements of songs and works by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Fauré and Poulenc.

Annette Cleary studied cello with many illustrious teachers, among them Aisling Drury-Byrne, Antonio Janigro, Andre Navarra and Paul Tortelier. Annette studied at California State University, the University of Southern California, and at the Stuttgart Hochschule fűr Musik. She is a prizewinner of International competitions in Europe and the U.S. and has performed as soloist with many orchestras, including the Sűdwestfunk Orchester, RTE Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. In 1989 she toured Europe and Russia with the Schleswig-Holstein International Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Annette has performed solo recitals and television broadcasts internationally, including a Southern African tour and five tours of Japan. In Ireland she has performed at major festivals and venues and has acted as jury member for the Bucchi International Chamber Music Competitions in Rome.

As Principal and Co-Principal cellist, Annette has worked with many orchestras including the RTE Concert Orchestra, D’Oyly Carte Opera, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, and the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

While based in the U.S. Annette played baroque cello as soloist with Los Angeles Musica Viva. She plays as guest principal cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and performs recitals regularly in Ireland. Recently, she has attained a Doctorate in Music (DCU) and is recording contemporary Irish works for cello.

Réamonn Keary studied piano with Gerard Shanahan in Limerick, John O’Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and, on receipt of an Austrian Government Scholarship, with Leonid Brumberg in Vienna.

Réamonn is a highly regarded chamber musician and has performed and recorded with many of the country’s top instrumentalists. He has appeared as a soloist with RTE Concert Orchestra and performed recitals in the UK, Berlin, Beijing and Shanghai. Over the years he has programmed and performed in numerous chamber music concert series which he built around the music of individual composers, among them Poulenc, Brahms, Schubert, Berwald, Chopin and Debussy. He has championed the music of contemporary Irish composers and has brought many world premier performances to the stage.

Réamonn is closely associated with the RIAM’s Local Centre examination system, having served as the Chairman of the Senior Examiners for many years. In association with RTE Lyric FM his Piano Keys podcast series won second place in the New York Festivals International Radio Awards in 2012. He is also much in demand as an adjudicator and was a jury member of the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2006 and 2009.

Barry McGovern's recent theatre work includes Woyzeck in Winter (Galway Arts Festival, Barbican and Dublin Theatre Festival); First Love (Gate); Krapp's Last Tape, Watt (adapted from Beckett's novel) and I'll Go On (adapted from Beckett's Three Novels) (all at Edinburgh International Festival); Ohio Impromptu, Act Without Words 2 and That Time (Walt Disney Hall, L.A.); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Abbey Theatre); Waiting for Godot (Mark Taper Forum, L.A.) and Endgame (Kirk Douglas Theatre, L.A.). Other theatre includes Sweeney Todd, The Home Place, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, A Christmas Carol, The Price, Glengarry Glen Ross (Gate), Faith Healer (Island Theatre Company) and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Gaiety). TV and Film includes Royally Ever After, Citizen Lane, The Cured, Aithrí/Penance, My Name is Emily,The Tudors, Miracle at Midnight, Na Cloigne, Game of Thrones, Gift of the Magi, Waiting for Godot, Joe Versus the Volcano, Dear Sarah and The Treaty. On radio he has directed a number of plays including Beckett's All that Fall and Pinter's Silence and played in Embers and Rough for Radio 2. A former member of the RTÉ Players and the Abbey Theatre company, he served on the Arts Council from 1984 to 1988. He has co-written two musicals with Bryan Murray and incidental music for some plays. He has recorded the complete Beckett novels Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable with RTÉ and the Lannan Foundation and gives frequent readings from Beckett's poetry and prose. He has taught at the University of Los Angeles at Davis and at the University of Notre Dame and was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Letters by Trinity College Dublin.