Altan Displays Mastery of Celtic Sound

Altan did what it does best Friday at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The Irish supergroup, touring in support of its new “The Blue Idol” album, once again displayed the virtuosic mastery it has brought to traditional Celtic music.

As always, Altan’s music was ignited by the two-violin team of Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Ciaran Tourish.

Leading the rhythmic charge in one quick stepping reel after another, their brilliant togetherness generated the sort of ecstatic excitement characteristic of the best improvisational music.

The greatness of Altan can be traced to the fact that--beyond the fiddling of Ni Mhaonaigh and Tourish--there are the superb guitar work and gentle vocals of Daithi Sproule and the rich musical foundation provided by Kieran Curran on bouzouki and Dermot Byrne on accordion.

Add to that the willingness to occasionally season their traditional songs with more contemporary sounds reminiscent of the long-gone Pentangle.

And finally--the crowning touch--there is the sweetly embracing voice of Ni Mhaonaigh. Singing “Uncle Rat” and the Robert Burns classic “Green Grow the Rushes,” she added tenderness and warmth to the program.

Folk singer Kate Rusby, who opened the show, burst onto the English music stage in 1999 when her “Sleepless” album won Britain’s Mercury Music Prize as one of the best British albums of the year.

But her performance, despite its engaging collection of tunes, was undermined by the audio system, which buried her laid-back vocals beneath the overamplified sound of her guitar, cittern and accordion backing.