NCH, Dublin

This National Concert Hall concert by the London Symphony Orchestra, under its principal guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, was very much a concert of two halves. The programme was an all-Viennese one, two great and popular works by Schubert (the

Rosamunde

Overture and the

Great

C major Symphony) framing the still all-too-infrequently heard Three Orchestral Pieces that Alban Berg planned for the 40th birthday of his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg, in 1914.

Tilson Thomas’s approach to Schubert’s delightful overture was carefully studied in intention and a little loose in ensemble detail. It was as if someone had gone to too much trouble to calculate the effect of casualness, instead of being, well, just casual.

The conductor introduced Berg’s Three Orchestral Pieces – one of his favourite works, he said – from the podium, and conducted them with exceptional care and clarity. His intention seemed to be to bring maximum cogency to these complex pieces, and his performance rarely failed to find a melodic thread on which to carry the music forward. This was, however, a one-sided approach to a very complex work. And, if you’ll forgive the exaggeration, the effect was not unlike that of creating an almost Zen-like spareness and remove in a work of dark and often tortured abundance.

His handling of the Schubert symphony, by contrast, was right on target. It was as if he had decided that Schubert’s last symphony was a piece which should simply play itself, and he knew exactly how to contrive a performance that would hide most signs of conductorial intervention.

His account was one of easy grandeur and natural warmth, with a strong sense of organic growth, beautifully sprung bass lines, and great discipline from the heavy brass. There was no hectoring, and none of Schubert’s extremes seemed excessive.

It was as if it the piece was allowed to unfold with just the balance of free lyricism and drama that Schubert intended. It was, in short, a delight from beginning to end.