Ailbhe has received dozens of reviews for her performances, recordings and compositions. Click here to jump to your section of interest: performance reviews / recording reviews / composition reviews
Latest reviews
Updated: February 2025
"McDonagh has accomplished something quite remarkable in so deftly honouring Vivaldi whilst at the same time weaving Ireland's musical heritage into the writing."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2025)
Textura 🔗
"The pairing of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the world premiere recording of McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons was a natural choice. The former is an intimate, warm and upbeat performance, but it’s really the McDonagh work that drives the CD – and it’s a real gem."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2025)
The Whole Note 🔗
Performance reviews
"McDonagh plays with flawless technique, faultless intonation, and a strong yet meltingly sweet tone."
Fanfare Magazine
"Out of several performances of the Beethoven A major sonata heard over 30 years, McDonagh’s was the most musically complete and satisfying.”
The Irish Times
Recording reviews
"McDonagh’s recording is clearly that of a performer at once highly skilled from a technical standpoint and highly thoughtful from an expressive one. Her rendition of the suites is quite convincing on its own terms – and certainly compares favorably with the many other first-rate recordings of these unsurpassed works."
"McDonagh plays as if the cello is an extension of her thinking as well as her body: there is a sense of unity of player and played that gives the suites a wholly pleasurable sense of cohesion."
"McDonagh handles the suites’ technical demands with apparent ease ... the elegance and warmth of the performances come through as well."
Infodad 🔗
+ awarded their highest rating [++++]
For Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites
"Bach may be universal, but until now no Irish person had recorded these Suites: almost an oversight since each concludes with a jig! McDonagh convinces with her clear articulation, her drive and vigour, and her very meticulous phrasing. In a very clear recording, she progresses in a firm and resolute manner to the truth and solidity of the discourse, without the interpreter's, or the composer's, ego becoming excessively prominent."
Concerto Net 🔗
For Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites
"There’s a wonderful openness to Ailbhe's performances that allow the genius of Bach to shine through. This album, it is beautifully done, exquisitely rendered, warm sound, and you will treasure it in your collection, trust me. [ ...] Ailbhe McDonagh, she’s marching to a different drum. This reading itself, this one here is so beautifully balanced between the classical and the melodic approach: dance, poetry, imagery - it’s all here in this recording. And Ailbhe doesn’t flinch the challenges of this second suite in particular. Very rich cello sounds sure, but also passionate, highly charged playing: it’s intellectual in a sense."
Bernard Clarke, RTÉ Lyric FM
For Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites
"McDonagh’s straightforward yet subtly inflected Preludes are good examples of her approach, as are the fluidly shaped Courantes. The D minor Minuets convey a leisurely lilt, while the cellist’s inner “swing” and carefully scaled dynamics throughout the E-flat Bourées simply delight."
"These are fine performances marked by un-selfregarding simplicity, and they’re well-engineered too."
Classics Today 🔗
For Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites
"McDonagh's light, breathy cello tone helps give her cycle something of a pure or transparent character, as if McDonagh is deferring to Bach rather than placing herself between him and us."
"McDonagh gives us a minutely felt and delightful musicality. In her choice of how exactly to weight a fermata or how to handle a miniscule accelerando, in her charting of a path between sentimental and showy, she consistently makes quietly tasteful choices."
"McDonagh’s cycle is a humble one, but it is precisely therein that the success of this recording lies. McDonagh doesn’t draw attention to herself but instead to the musical line."
The Journal of Music 🔗
For Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites
Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites - "CD of the Week" February 2024
RTÉ Lyric FM
"The coordination between McDonagh and O'Conor sets this recording apart, and each sonata is individually conceived. There is a lot to absorb here, and it's the kind of recording to which one will return repeatedly."
AllMusic 🔗
4.5 out of 5 stars
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
"McDonagh, who as a child studied piano with O’Conor, is a great partner and clearly on the same level here, the duo being as one with every nuance in dynamics and tempi in outstanding performances."
The Whole Note 🔗
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
"McDonagh and O'Conor are two fine musicians who work together with clarity and love for the music, recorded in clear and balanced sound."
American Record Guide
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
"Cellist Ailbhe McDonagh and pianist John O'Conor coalesce perfectly, as if propelled by the music's undertow, and echo each other's expressive mien with dynamic balance, as if holding a cordial conversation. [...] As is the norm these days, two young musicians out to impress would play everything fast for the sake of velocity, and two veterans would make everything sound overly pedantic. But this ... this is music making that blends head and heart seamlessly."
Classical Music Sentinel 🔗
+ added to their Essential Recordings
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
"Hope amid Tears: Beethoven Cellos Sonatas from cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Ailbhe McDonagh, two vibrant, complementary recordings of Beethoven Cello Sonatas"
"McDonagh and O'Conor take the opening of Op. 102/1 to whispered heights, and again later there is a most appealing sense of two-as-one. They find buoyant, almost dancing, rhythms."
Classical Explorer 🔗
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
"McDonagh and O’Conor seem highly attuned (so to speak) both to the music and to each other: their balance is flawless, and their pacing has a natural quality that makes it sound as if these works could not possibly be played at any other tempo."
Infodad 🔗
+ awarded their highest rating [++++]
For Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas
Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas - "CD of the Week" May 2021
RTÉ Lyric FM
Skellig - "Top Album Picks of 2020"
The Irish Examiner
It's a Cello Thing - "a stunning debut album"
Irish Independent
It's a Cello Thing - "CD of the Week" April 2012
RTÉ Lyric FM
Composition reviews
"McDonagh has accomplished something quite remarkable in so deftly honouring Vivaldi whilst at the same time weaving Ireland's musical heritage into the writing."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2025)
Textura 🔗
"The pairing of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the world premiere recording of McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons was a natural choice. The former is an intimate, warm and upbeat performance, but it’s really the McDonagh work that drives the CD – and it’s a real gem."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2025)
The Whole Note 🔗
"McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons is an idiomatic and compelling synthesis of traditional Irish music, blending captivating melodies with classical form. The four movements follow the pattern of Vivaldi’s Seasons, weaving enchanting lines in Earrach (Spring), sharing a rhythmic affinity in Samhradh (Summer), and showcasing violin virtuosity in Fómhar (Autumn). In Geimhreadh (Winter), listeners are treated to a beautiful gift for melody."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
BBC Music Magazine
"McDonagh’s Irish Four Seasons is a beautifully judged, rewarding melding of Irish-style tunes and Baroque-style settings, from the shapely phrases in the solo opening to ‘Earrach’ (‘Spring’) to the unearthly, icy purity of ‘Geimhreadh’ (‘Winter’)."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
The Strad Magazine 🔗
"The chief attraction of this album is Ailbhe McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons, where ideas from Vivaldi intertwine with Irish sounds, creating something fresh and distinctive. McDonagh’s Geimhreadh (Winter) finale gathers material from earlier movements, suggesting, as noted, that 'all four seasons can happen in one day' in Ireland. Subtle yet accessible, this is music that anyone can enjoy while tracing its connections to Vivaldi's Four Seasons."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
AllMusic 🔗
"Ailbhe McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons is a well-crafted, subtly engaging work that pays tribute to Vivaldi while asserting its distinct Irish origins. The movement sequence follows Vivaldi's pattern, with Irish-inflected material throughout. Earrach (Spring) is gentle and lyrical, Samhradh (Summer) has a Vivaldi-like effervescence, Fómhar (Autumn) offers a dance-like quality with a distinct Irish accent, and Geimhreadh (Winter) combines lyricism and an intense burst of enthusiasm. This piece deserves further hearings and stands out when paired with the Vivaldi original."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
Infodad 🔗
+ awarded their highest rating [++++]
"McDonagh’s work is the real interest here: taking each season in one movement, the composer weaves together Irish melodies and Glass-like repetition to stirring effect."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
IntoClassical 🔗
"Ailbhe McDonagh’s The Irish Four Seasons brings an impassioned close to this recording. Opening with the longing of Earrach (Spring), followed by the vivacious energy of Samhradh (Summer), the flirtatious charm of Fómhar (Autumn), and culminating in the lonesome craving of Geimhreadh (Winter), McDonagh’s work adds a distinctive emotional depth to the album."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
Anne Carlini 🔗
"I will never get tired of fresh musical takes on the seasons. Sure, Vivaldi’s set has been recorded plenty, but when the concept gets paired with another composer, it just always works. Ailbhe McDonagh’s Irish set is no exception, as violinist Lynda O’Connor is joined by the ensemble Anamus."
Review of The Irish Four Seasons (2024)
Colleen Wheelahan 🔗
The Irish Four Seasons - "Album of the Week" August 2024
Classical Connections with John Toal
BBC Radio Ulster
The Irish Four Seasons - "Marty Recommends" August 2024
Marty in the Morning
RTÉ Lyric FM
"McDonagh has an ear for cool, pop-influenced harmony that’s easy on the ear but still interesting."
Review of Skellig on the BBC Radio 3 programme 'Irish Classical – Hidden in Plain Sight' (2024)
Journal of Music 🔗
String Quartet No. 2 - "Premier of the Month" December 2023
The Strad Magazine 🔗
"I would say that It’s a Piano Thing 2 is quite simply one of the best original repertoire collections for intermediate players that I’ve come across. Boosey & Hawkes are to be commended for investing in this talented young composer, and with the support of such a distinguished publisher I for one hope that these pieces make their mark and take up a permanent place in the easy piano repertoire."
Andrew Eales, PianoDao
For It's a Piano Thing book 2
It's a Piano Thing book 1: "Ailbhe’s imagination here locks into the mundane every-day parts of a modern child’s life, equally and deftly avoiding both the obscure and the contrived. It is this, perhaps above all, that left me feeling extremely happy with the collection, confident in recommending it without reservation."
Andrew Eales, PianoDao
For It's a Piano Thing book 1