{TABLE} Walking on Water 1997......................Marian Ingoldsby Luna (1996)................................Siobhan Cleary Is (1996)..................................David Fennessey The Fly (1993).............................Deirdre McKay First Light (1996/97)......................Gerard Power Tree (1997)................................Andrew Hamilton {/TABLE} CONCORDE'S MIDDAY recital on Sunday in the Lane Gallery presented short works by six young Irish composers. Most of these works were receiving their first Irish performance, and Hamilton's Tree, for flute, violin, cello, piano and marimba, had been commissioned by Concorde for this occasion. Like all the other works, it showed an eagerness to push musical expression to the limits without breaking the codes of classical decorum: the composers had - been born into the avant-garde but as yet were only trying out their wings.

Tree was the most successful in instilling the music with a sense of continuity; Cleary's expressionist Luna moved in a brusquely cinematic fashion from one idea to the next, violin and piano sharing an emotional narrative. Power's First Light for piano trio also tended to shift from one idea to another, but in a more introvert manner: reminiscences of other dawn-inspired music moved in and out of focus.

Ingoldsby's Walking on Water, for flute, violin, cello and piano, is related to Alice Munro's story of that name, but the music's markedly intellectual structure lacked vigour.

Is, for flute, violin and guitar (John Feeley), was of unusual harmonic mildness, but Fennessey failed to make effective use of the flute and violin. McKay's The Fly, a setting of Blake's poem, for soprano and clarinet, was acerbic in style and the two parts seemed to pull in different directions.