The composer details the appeal of a roast dinner and his ‘embarrassingly’ early bedtimes
The best time to get up at the weekend is?
I’m naturally an early riser. I’m often up just after 7am. It’s nice to get up early, make breakfast, play Bach badly on the piano, have coffee and contemplate the whole day ahead.
Breakfast or brunch?
Definitely breakfast and always quite early. Porridge with honey and blueberries (which currently are harvested from my own couple of bushes), a glass of orange juice and a banana, followed by my espresso and a glass of water. I spend quite a bit of time in France these days, so on the odd occasion I’d have viennoiserie of some sort. I’m quite regimented about breakfast — same every day.
What does an ideal Saturday look like? What would you love to do?
An ideal Saturday would involve a trip up to a little hilltop village near my house in France, to buy some amazing bread from a boulangerie that has a wood-fired oven, and then an espresso in the café there. After that if I can get a bit of composition done and listen to a few records (I still play vinyl and have a great collection), that’d be perfect. Obviously, we’d have a nice lunch with the incredible bread, and there’d be some left for dinner. Similarly, if I’m in Belfast it’d be a coffee on the Lisburn Road where I live. I quite like Output; nice cooked breakfasts there too.
Composer Greg Caffrey
What would your perfect Sunday be like?
My perfect Sunday would be like my perfect Saturday, with a Sunday roast.
Do you prefer to be indoors or outdoors?
Well composing music is largely an indoor pursuit, although I guess it needn’t be. I must get some composition done at the weekends — it’s compulsory! Also, our French house is the mother of all renovations, so I’m often working on that when I’m there, and that can be inside or out, especially in spring/summer. Perversely, I think I enjoy the renovation work… when it’s going well! I certainly love the sense of achievement when another job is completed. I see the renovation as a creative pursuit like any other. It’s amazing, the similarities between writing music and carrying out building work. You’ll find me in front of a cement mixer these days as often as sitting at the piano.
How have weekends changed as you have gotten older?
In my younger days Lavery’s would have been the spot. I’ve great memories of summer weekend evenings sitting on a beer keg out in the back alley, or in the back bar when the weather wasn’t so clement (c. 1980s). But I did a lot of gigging in my younger days too, so Friday and Saturday nights were often work nights. Sometimes lunchtime jazz gigs during the day too. I gave up performing in the late Nineties in favour of composing. Trips to the pub are rarer occasions nowadays, but they do still occasionally happen, thankfully.
If you could eat out anywhere tonight in NI, where would you go and why?
I’m very fond of Coppi in Cathedral Quarter; nice Italian cuisine, and usually some fishy dishes. Otherwise, The Raj on the Lisburn Road is a lovely family-run Indian with nice food. I don’t eat out a lot — it’s expensive!
What would you have?
A nice fishy dish, something like a seafood linguine would appeal to me, maybe some calamari for starters? Or in the case of the Raj, almost certainly I’d order a lamb saag.
At weekends you’ll always make time to…
Compose; listen to music.
Do you sometimes work at weekends?
I always work at weekends. I recently released a new album of orchestral music, performed by the Ulster Orchestra — that was a massive undertaking. Since then, I’ve received a commission for another orchestral piece, this time from Camerata Ireland, and it will also feature the brilliant flautist and my long-time collaborator Aisling Agnew. The premiere is at the Clandeboye Festival on August 23. The festival celebrates 25 years of the orchestra, which was set up in response to the Good Friday Agreement, so it’s a very special thing.
Who would you most like to go for a drink with and why?
Probably my two daughters as they are good craic. But my eldest is expecting my second grandchild, so she’ll not be in the pub anytime soon, and my youngest daughter lives in Narbonne in France now (quite a distance from my French house and a long way from the Lisburn Road), so there’s not a great many imbibing opportunities. We used to do a bit of a pub-crawl together at Christmas time, but ‘the girls’ have matured faster than I have, and the pub-crawls are fading.
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Are you a weekend cook?
I’m a sporadic cook, an occasional cook, but current new works include a cheeky mushroom risotto and (in keeping with the rice theme), I’ve just mastered ‘the paella’.
What’s your dream Sunday dinner?
Perhaps this lacks imagination, but, a nice roast chicken, roasties etc. Nice bottle of wine too.
Who do you normally eat Sunday dinner with and where?
With my wife Jacqui at home, at holiday times with the whole family.
Too tired to cook – what are you ordering from the takeaway?
We’re not mad on takeaways, but we have a BaoBun and Camile near us in Belfast, which are top of our list. And it’s hard to beat a big fish supper from Café Fish. We never eat takeaways in France.
Heading for the cinema? What are you going to see?
We really only use the QFT. I’m not keen on mainstream cinema (with exceptions). I can’t stand the modern sound design and a lot of the film music in these blockbusters disturbs me. Independent films and foreign cinema would be my thing.
Mafia crime drama The Sopranos
Staying in… what TV/streaming/catch-up programmes are on the menu?
I don’t have a TV. I’m not an enthusiastic streamer. I once got hooked on The Sopranos and was watching four episodes a night consecutively until I almost went mad with sleep deprivation. I’m keen not to repeat this behaviour!
What are you reading?
I realise how boring this must sound, but my last three books (in as many months) were biographies of the composers Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy and Hans Werner Henze. Note to self: start reading normal stuff again!
Bedtime is…?
Embarrassingly early, especially in winter, hence the early rising. Wine — especially on Friday nights.
Greg Caffrey is a composer based in Belfast and France. He was founder of Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble, Belfast’s professional contemporary music ensemble, and was their artistic director for 10 years, stepping down in June 2023 to concentrate on his composition work. His latest album of orchestral music, Environments, performed by the Ulster Orchestra, has just been released on the Divine Art Label DDX 21131.
His new commission, Environments IV, will be premiered by Camerata Ireland at the Clandeboye Festival on August 23.