Die Fledermaus Overture - Strauss

A Golden Moment - Ronald Follas

Rusalka's Song to the Moon - Dvorak

Jewel Song - Gounod

By the Waters of Moyle - Larchet

Che il bel sogno di Doretta - Puccini

Last night was one of those nights to remember - Offenbach

Pineapple Poll (exc) - Sullivan/Mackerras

Loose programming was a problem in Tuesday's lunchtime orchestral concert at the National Concert Hall. This confection of eight pieces by eight composers from seven countries comprised four short operatic airs, and four orchestral items, some of them composites. Add to all this variety the hotch-potch order, the turning to and from comic opera, and the insubstantial nature of the few serious items, and one had a messy pot-pourri. The sole common feature was the music's Romantic aesthetic.

Fergus O'Carroll conducted the National Symphony Orchestra and Kathryn Smith (soprano) was the guest soloist. Her emphasis on vocal tone tended to be at the expense of clarity with words, and in the Song to the Moon from Dvorak's Rusalka the sound was too monochrome. But she had strong stage presence and held her audience, as her exaggerated, parlando delivery of a song by Offenbach showed.

The orchestral accompaniment to the songs was competent and some nicely coloured sounds were heard in Larchet's By the Waters of Moyle and in A Golden Moment by the American Ronald Follas. Strauss's Die Fledermaus Overture was marred by some ragged seams, and the strongest playing was in excerpts from Charles Mackerras's clever collage of tunes by Sullivan, Pineapple Poll. But even this sturdy performance could not dispel the dissatisfying impression created by a misconceived programme.