Michael Dungan reviews Petcu-Colan, RTÉ Concert Orchestra/Lockhart at the Mahony Hall in The Helix, Dublin

Petcu-Colan, RTÉ Concert Orchestra/Lockhart
Mahony Hall, The Helix, Dublin

Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No 1
Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor Haydn - Symphony No 101 "The Clock"

Ioana Petcu-Colan was the soloist in Bruch's much-loved G minor Violin Concerto when the RTÉ Concert Orchestra opened its four-concert Spring Series at the Helix on Thursday night.

The young Petcu-Colan has performed a number of big concertos but is perhaps best known as leader of the Callino String Quartet, the acclaimed all-female ensemble she formed with fellow Irish students at London's Royal Academy of Music in 1999.

It's quite a distance from quartet to full-blown romantic concerto. But Petcu-Colan not only makes a wholehearted transition, she imports various useful qualities from her smaller-scale musical constituency: complete ease in the spotlight, confidence in musical partnership with conductor and orchestra.

And intimacy. It was clear from the violin's quiet opening gesture that Petcu-Colan was not overly worried about technical challenges, but rather was fully absorbed in the heart of the music. And while such can lead to introverted playing, this was a performance that connected subtly but powerfully with the listener, most obviously in the emotionally-charged slow movement. When technical issues were most prominent, as in the fast multi-stopping that opens the Finale, Petcu-Colan appeared equally at home and at ease.

Conductor James Lockhart was sensitive in accompaniment. As he showed in his smooth, rich-sounding direction of the four movements from Grieg's popular Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, his tendency is for understatement. This meant that, in the Bruch, the emotional lead was left, with memorable results, to the soloist. It's rare enough for a symphony concert to end with Haydn. You might wonder why after Lockhart's lean, nicely paced account of Symphony No. 1 - nicknamed "The Clock" after the plucked tick-tocking of the second movement - whose energetic Finale brought the concert to a satisfying close.

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra's Spring Series continues at the Helix on Thursday nights throughout February