The Irish American - A recital of songs and piano music

Una Hunt, piano

Heather Sammon, mezzo soprano

In 1854, the Irish opera composer William Vincent Wallace became an American citizen and, coincidentally, published a sumptuously-illustrated album of songs and piano music with the publishers, William Hall and Son, New York, dedicated to the ‘Ladies of the United States’. It appears that only around 50 copies of the album were produced but one of these was acquired by the National Library of Ireland some fifteen years ago and a facsimile edition and CD of this historically-significant publication was issued in 2012 to mark the composer’s bicentenary. The most arresting feature of the album are several beautiful lithographs, coloured by hand, making this a very unusual and sought-after volume for ladies in the drawing room.

At its first publication, The New York Times declared: ‘this is unquestionably one of the handsomest gift books of the season ... we cannot conceive of a more graceful and elegant offering to the ladies of the United States’. The album’s popularity was assured when it was advertised as a ‘must have’ gift for Christmas 1853 in The Musical World and Times. Wallace’s prowess as a composer is highly praised - ‘the transcendent genius of Wallace has never before been so fully developed’ and the book’s fine quality illustrations are described as ‘among the finest specimens of lithographic art ever done in America’.

Included on the programme are the delightful canzonets celebrating the four seasons and a ballad: ‘Say, my heart, can this be love’; also, a selection of dance-inspired pieces for the piano, ‘valse gracieuse: La Pluie d’Or’; ‘Schottisch: The Village Festiva’l; and the ‘Invitation Polka’.

Also featured are excerpts from the collection of Irish-American Sheet Music at the Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco.

Host or Publisher TU Dublin Conservatoire