cottage

Gently rolling hills in every imaginable shade of green, jagged cliffs with their rugged precipices that plunge down towards the Atlantic, and inhospitable rocky landscapes fascinating in their bleakness: people love Ireland for its breath-taking Nature. It is also well-known for the hospitality and cordiality of its people, its romantic coastal towns and old fishing villages, its castles and picturesque ruins, its cosy pubs with their whiskey and beer, its many sheep, its Gaelic language, its many-facetted history, its exhilarating dances, Joyce’s prose, Wilde’s poetry, and its unique music that goes straight to your heart. Like many other musics, Irish folk music deals with the topics of love, Nature, loss and loneliness, but also tells of legends, adventurers, and the politics of the Irish independence movement.

The six musicians from Cantons Uri and Schwyz who make up the band “Cottage” (founded in 2001) play traditional Irish folk music and will whisk you away from the Andermatt Concert Hall to the Emerald Isle. The very sound of their music will take us on a journey: Irish folk is fascinating because it is always changing; It does not shy away from modernisation, yet still preserves its own traditions. The inimitable sound of the violin (Maria Gehrig) and the tin whistle (Susan Bossart) seems synonymous with Irish folk music, at once down-to-earth and straightforward and yet full of yearning. Often melancholic, sometimes exuberant, these two instruments together evoke longings, wanderlust and timelessness. When joined by Nathalie Ulrich on cello, Pia Rubi on accordion, Fredi Bossart on guitar and the characterful, rhythmic pulse of percussionist Micha Nussbaumer, the result is a sound world of healthy vigour.