Irish flavour Alexandre Carlin

Irish flavour is a work bringing together three Irish themes.

The piece begins with the kerry dance, a jig, a ternary dance, passing from sections to sections, at a fairly lively tempo. Close your eyes and you will surely imagine some step-dancing enthusiasts in front of you.

The central part will make you hear "down by the sally gardens", a nice melody composed in 1909, inspired by the poem by the Irishman William Butler Yeats. The "sally" (or salley) were trees intended to provide the raw material for the construction of roofs. These gardens were located not far from Sligo, in the west of the country.

This softer moment highlights the different colours of the orchestra thanks to a lighter orchestration.

The last part is based on the revolutionary song "The Foggy Dew", written in 1919. This song chronicles the Easter rising, a key moment in the history of Ireland. The song encourages the Irish to fight for the cause of Ireland, rather than that of the English. There is a very beautiful version performed by singer Sinead O'Connor.

This movement is based on an ostinato rhythm played by the percussion section. The theme is first presented by the low instruments and then by the treble ones.