Review: Mozaik, National Centre for Early Music, York

2:29pm Thursday 27th September 2007

AN enraptured audience at York's National Centre for Early Music was swept away on a transatlantic musical journey, from the west of Ireland to the Appalachian Mountains of North America, and across the world to Eastern Europe.

A symphony of strings were effortlessly interchanged, plucked or bowed in the hands of talented multi-instrumentalists Mozaik.

Legendary Irish musicians and former members of Planxty, Andy Irvine and Donál Lunny; American fiddler and vocalist Bruce Molsky and the flying fingers of Dutchman, Rens van der Zalm.

Virtuoso Hungarian musician Nikola Parov stunned listeners with a range of Balkan instruments, including gadoulka, gaida and kaval and a Swedish nykelharpa.

The concert opened with a song penned by Andy, pondering his attachment to County Clare. Bruce was not daunted by a broken fiddle string during a vigorous rendition of the reel which followed.

A lively set of dance tunes from Macedonia featured a duo of bouzoukis and mandolin, accompanied by the powerful woodwind of Parov.

The musical journey then traversed the world to West Virginia, with foot-tapping tune Big Hoedown, featuring Bruce's amazing vocals and American-style fiddle.

A combination of Bulgarian dance tunes and Irish slip-jigs showed the band's versatility. Donál contributed a wonderful Irish touch with his sensitive and tuneful bodhran playing and a song in Gaelic from County Donegal.

The concert rose to a musical climax with a momentous line-up of strings for Transatlantic Express.

This was a unique blend of truly global proportions to form a perfect musical Mozaik.

Nina Wilson