Dermot Gault reviews the Ulster Orchestra -Takuo Yuasa at The Spires Centre, Belfast.

Joan Trimble - Suite for Strings. Elaine Agnew - Strings a-stray. Stanford - Clarinet Concerto. Eric Sweeney - Dance Music No 1. Harty - Irish Symphony.

It's easy to list the faults of Hamilton Harty's Irish Symphony; it's sprawling, uneven, and in places naive, and the folk tunes selected stoutly resist assimilation to the symphonic style (although one can't blame him for including folk melodies as such, as it was a stipulation of the 1901 Dublin Feis Ceoil for which the work was written). But the best moments are so big-hearted and sincere that you can't help liking it, especially in a warm performance such as this.

It's harder to say where the problem lies with Stanford's Clarinet Concerto. Rich in a Brahmsian way, smoothly sweet and expressive, it was played with undemonstrative subtlety by the young Dublin-born clarinettist, Carol McGonnell. But nothing stays in the memory.

Joan Trimble's suite from 1953 is pleasant music which shows she could write for strings and knew also how to add harmonic subtleties just when things are about to become a bit insipid.

Elaine Agnew's piece, written for the 1994 Two Cathedrals Festival in Derry, comes from a different world, with dense, clouded harmonies and a strange mixture of styles, to which the title perhaps refers.

This music is far more modern and troubled in feel, and perhaps these days it just isn't possible to write happy, uncomplicated music. The Eric Sweeney piece tries its best, but it goes on too long. However, it makes a clean, bright sound.