RTÉ NSO/Maloney, Wagner – Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin. Dvorak – The Water Goblin.  Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No 1. NCH, Dublin

RTÉs summer lunchtime concerts at the National Concert Hall have been encroaching into September for a number of years now. But this year marks a change. Rather than continue the mostly light-music potpourris of the actual summer months, the new series, which opened on Tuesday, focuses on a series of late symphonic poems by Dvorak.

In 1896, Dvorak wrote a series of orchestral works, most of which were inspired by the grisly folk ballads of Karel Erben – the composer’s own description of the pieces was “orchestral ballads”.

The Water Goblin,which Gavin Maloney conducted on Tuesday, is the story is of an unfortunate girl who falls victim to a water goblin. She is forced to become his wife and bear his child. In her misery she manages to secure a visit to her mother, but only by leaving her child as security. Her mother refuses to allow her return, and the water goblin stirs up a storm. He wreaks his revenge, leaving outside the cottage: "A child's head without a body, A child's body without a head".

Dvorak’s approach to his subject is not graphic in the way you could imagine it having become in the hands of a Richard Strauss. Watery storms apart, he allows you to read between the lines. It’s often a matter of discovering moments of chill and inner disturbance which are indicated, as it were, by a raised eyebrow or a knowing look from the narrator. Gavin Maloney’s handling of the piece was bold and vigorous, blunt and straight-talking rather than subtle, literal rather than imaginative.

Maloney tackled the rest of his programme in the same manner. He handled the spiritual flight of the Prelude to Wagner's Lohengrin in a grounded, earthly way. And he brought a cautious sensibility and clean orchestral touch to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 1, presenting listeners with a Liszt who was all formality, with no real abandon.

The RTÉ NSO’s Dvorak series continues until September 28