Martha Overture - Flotow
The Irish Hussar - Victory
Fantasia on Polish Airs - Chopin
Les preludes - Liszt
Lorna Horan was the guest soloist in the lunchtime orchestral concert at the National Concert Hall last Tuesday. This Irish-born pianist, who has studied in England and is now at the Vancouver Academy of Music in Canada, played Chopin's Fantasia on Polish Airs. In this youthful work the orchestra does not have much to do; but it does occasionally carry the main tune while the piano plays filigree ornamentation.
Lorna Horan's over-persistent projection distorted that relationship, though her shaping and technical proficiency in this virtuosic piece were consistent and impressive.
It was interesting to hear the RTE Concert Orchestra and conductor Proinnsias O Duinn in Victory's The Irish Hussar. This is the second of Three Irish Pictures, which was premiered in 1981 by the RTE Symphony Orchestra and this conductor. I found myself wondering if any of those contemporary composers who write large-scale, folk-inspired pieces will ever match Gerard Victory in craftsmanship, especially in creating coherent, symphonic proportions out of eight-bar tunes.
The grandiloquent gestures of Liszt's Les preludes dominated this concert. The performance was sometimes over-urgent, and of the several RTECO concerts I have attended recently, this was the first when the size of the orchestra's string section was a problem. In this music that fact is probably as insuperable as it is in Wagner. Nevertheless, the playing had its impressive aspects, especially the homogeneity and strength of the brass and horn sections.
