Meet Galway's Romanian musicians in residence - The Lyric Feature

Documentary maker Eoin Brady writes for Culture on the genesis of his forthcoming Lyric Feature about Galway's Romanian musicians in residence, the ConTempo Quartet.

I was with the ConTempo Quartet and we were taking a break from recording some lyric jingles – the station's theme tune - arranged for string quartet. As expected, the quartet were brilliant as usual, one or two takes for each jingle, very few edits and by lunchtime we were almost done.

As we sat down to eat, I apologised for the quality of the anonymous brown soup all four of the musicians were tucking into. I think it was Andreea, the viola player, who brushed my concerns away with the off-hand comment: "You forget, we grew up in Romania under Ceaușescu, we’ll eat anything!"

Whether or not that’s exactly what happened, that’s what I remember and I stored it away in my mind thinking, there is a story there.

Watch: The ConTempo Quartet play The Embassy Sessions

A few years later, I found myself in the Irish Chamber Orchestra building on the beautiful University of Limerick campus, recording the music of the Irish-American composer Swan Hennessy, again with the ConTempo Quartet. The acoustic was gorgeous and our engineer Ben Rawlins (who has subsequently won a Grammy for his work with Rhiannon Giddens) was capturing their playing in all its subtle, lively and virtuosic detail.

But right at this moment, in the control room we were looking at each other fearfully. Bogdan Sofei (violin I), Ingrid Nicola (violin II), Andreea Banciu (viola) and Adrian Mantu, (cello) were vehemently arguing in Romanian, interspersed with repeated short musical phrases and gesticulations. Honestly, I was expecting blood on the floor but when we took a coffee-break, all was sweetness and light.

Swan Hennessy died in the early twentieth century, but what they were debating was his intentions as a composer. How best to interpret his music. I am not sure I know of anyone else who cares so much about this as the ConTempo Quartet.

Watch: ConTempo Quartet play Mozart's Adagio & Fugue

This drive for excellence is always present but so too is their engagement with the audience. Whether they are collaborating with other artists, working in a community project, performing in front of ambassadors or in a retirement home, there is always a sense of connection and, indeed, joy.

Thinking about this and the gloopy soup episode, I resolved to try and tell the story of their journey from Romania to Ireland, where they have been based in on the west coast as part of Galway Music Residency since the early 2000s. They have moved to a country on the edge of Europe, and their playing is always a bit edgy too. It is sharp, precise and slightly unpredictable but when you hear it, you know it is right. I hope you get the same feeling too when you hear Music on the Edge, the story of the ConTempo Quartet.