Just saw Mary Bergin perform at the
Mississippi Celitc Festival concert tonight
at Sheldon Hall. She played a brass Generation,
she was accompanied by a guitarist.
Awesome; dizzying technique.
She is better in person that on her
CDs, IMO, because one sees her love
of the music she’s playing. On the
CDs I’ve sometimes been overwhelmed
by her virtuosity.
This was a stunning concert, lovely,
lovely music.
Sounds like a great night,Jim.
Did Mary just stick to playing the one whistle? On her two albums,she plays in a variety of keys-with a preference for Eb.
Yes, only one whistle. It was enough to make an old man cry when he thinks about how his playing sounds. Michael Burke told me at the concert that it had to be me, not the whistle he made and sold to me. 
I find it interesting that you say that on her CDs she predominantly plays the Eb whistle. It is constantly said here that IrTrad is usually in the key of D. But I noticed that tunes by Micho Russell that are posted on the one site are all on an Eb whistle. I have heard others here say that they love there Eb. Is the Eb played much more than a beginner might be led to expect? I personally love the sound of my Eb Gens.
Ron
Here’s the statistics; Out of the 29 tracks on ‘Feadog Stain’ albums ‘1’ and ‘2’,Mary plays ‘D’ whistle on 3 tracks,Eb whistle on 15 tracks.
The other tracks are played on F,C,Bb and a Low G whistles.
Eb is fairly common, but usually only in solo playing of whistles and flutes. (Occasionally in duets, too, and Dervish is the only band I know of that usually plays in Eb.) It’s definitely a nice sound, plus it sounds faster and more energetic.
If you go to a session, 99% of the time it will be in D. But there are plenty of recordings in Eb – more than enough to justify buying an Eb whistle, even if you never expect to play it in public. (My wonderful Eb O’Riordan lives on my computer desk, and gets played every day, but never leaves the house.)
When you play on your own you can play any whistle or key you like.
There are several whistleplayer who prefer the Generation E flat for solo playing, they are clean responsive whistles that take little effort. For what it’s worth: Micho usually played an E flat whislte when playing on his own, sometimes he would use a C whistle if he had one he liked handy. Playing with others he’d play in whatever key they were playing. The second half of the concert from which the clips on Steve’s site were taken we played in C [because my pipes are in C].
Thanks for the feedback. I always play alone and I play whichever whistle strikes my fancy that day. My favorite of all is an old Feadan D followed closely by my Clare D. I frequently play a Gen C or Bb and occasionally a Gen Eb. It depends on what I am playing.
I would really love to hear Mary Bergen play in person. It must be quite a show. I would expect that the first two rows are all whistle players. Last year I saw Joannie Madden and I was blown away. The next time (if there is a next time) I am in west Ireland I hope to hear a lot more music than I did the last time. I would love to hear those school kids that Peter posted here.
Ron
Mary B scares the crap out of me. Maybe it’s the old punk in me fighting to the surface, but I identify better with less technically excellent musicians. Actually, another explanation occurs… it’s because I’m rubbish on my instruments.
I find it interesting figuring out which key instruments peope use on recordings. After D and C I think Eb seems pretty popular. There’s an old Dubliners version of Molly Malone with a lovely little whistle intro which sounds to me like it’s an Eb. But then I have a tin ear as well as a heap of tin whistles so chances are I’m dead wrong…
She’s warm and smiling and happy,
and she plainly loves the music she’s playing.
Makes a difference. Best
Of course what I neglected to say is that I do have Mary B cds, which I love listening to, and if I get the chance to see her I’ll jump at it!
Funny, isn’t it, how lots of people remark how this warmth doesn’t come across on her CDs? I love listening to her CDs but somehow don’t expect an emotionally deep experience when I do. I think it’s the sheer relentlessness of her virtuosity that somehow amazes but doesn’t quite move. I’m really glad the warmth comes across clearly in concert and would love to hear and see her live.
One thing I love about virtuosos who do consistently move me emotionally is the economy of technique displayed, the choice of the right places to keep it simple and the way a tiny decoration in a simple passage can convey an ocean of feeling. I also love the way a player like this can, in the simplest of passages, suddenly throw in a technically mind-blowing phrase in just exactly the right place. It reminds you that it’s all there for when its needed and that the musician knows exactly when it is needed.
It was the blues harmonica player, Sonny Boy Williamson II, who used to remind younger players not to play every trick they know in the first half dozen choruses of a gig. The effect of that might be immediately devastating, but when the audience realises that the player is simply repeating ideas it soon gets boring. It would be unfair to say that Mary Bergin CDs are like this, but I do think there are times when less would be more.
Any quotations about what Mary Bergin thinks of her recordings and recordings themselves as a media? I am very cusious of that. 
Entirely agree. I remember Glenn gould had dizzying technique,
and admitted later in his life that when he was young
he played pieces ‘too fast.’ Extraordinary technique
can really be a problem. MB was very good,
her playing, with a guitar accompaniest, fine.
There were some moments, but few,
where I thought technique was about to
take over. I liked the performance
much better than the CDs, which I don’t
like very well.
Alot of performers will play on instruments tuned a fair bit sharper than normal because it brightens up the sound. It is not uncommon at all for musicians to play tunes in Eb rather than in D.
–
Bill
Jim, were you still there when Mary B. sat down with that session up in the back room that Grey Larsen was playing with? She was trying out the whole set of Michael Burke whistles she’d just got. That session just got better and better!
I don’t think that extraordinary technique was the problem for Feadoga Stain 1 or 2. In fact, I don’t even think that Mary’s technique is over the top. The success and importance of esp. the first CD was not the whistling technique but the depth of the musical expression. (There were other players than and are now whose technique may be cleaner and better than Mary’s., but technique isn’t everything.) It’s the tunes and what she does with them that makes the feadoga stain records remarkable, and particularly the reels. For instance, Mary’s version of Drunken Landlady is very influential (don’t know where she got it in turn, and it may have come direct from there, but I hear her version of it played most).
I do understand a bit what you mean about the record though, and I think it has to do with taking the music out of it’s familiar enviornment. Mary was playing session and house music in Dublin and then Spiddal since she was a kid, I think, and the transition to the studio probably wasn’t easy.
I don’t personally own but one CD of Mary’s, although I intend to own all at this point just out of the experience I had this past weekend. There is obvious creedence to what many here have said simply because there are many people with similar opinion of the CD’s not having the same ‘gusto’ as her live performances.
I can tell you tho, I didn’t even get to stay over for Sunday’s, from what I hear first hand, phenominal sessions and performances, but just at the Taproom after the concert was a ton of fun for me. I got to start off a couple of tunes… Morrison’s and Kiss the Maid… and the whole evening was a total blast, and Mary signed and played one of my whistles for me. I’m not going to be a butthead and go into details, but I can tell you that it was one of the greatest moments of my life as a whistle maker so far and I was extremely flustered and flattered.
Like I said before in another thread… best $70 I ever spent going to the Tionol where I saw her perform, took the workshop and got to play along with. She is just vibrant and starry-eyed when she starts playing and you can’t help but get dragged right along with!
In the workshop she was very good at the end to let us all record anything we wanted her to play, and do it very slowly or sort of normal speed… accenting the ornamentations… the timing, ways to change up the tune, etc. so it was a great experience to see her completely changing the way she played all over the board too, and encouraging and getting a big kick out of individual of playing styles.
Take care all,
John
Just to clarify in case people are wondering why some of us are expressing reservations about Mary Bergin on record, I don’t think any of us would rate the CDs as less than excellent. Well, I certainly wouldn’t anyway.
If you ask me whether I prefer Paddy Canny’s fiddling to, say, Julia Clifford’s, you might get an answer. But I’d listen to either with enormous pleasure any day.
Missed it. Rats!