TABLE
Pique Dame 0verture .....................Suppe
Karelia Suite ...........................Sibelius
Concertino for Trombone & Strings .......Larsson
Danse Macabre ...........................Saint-Saens
Irish Suite (exc) .......................Anderson
YESTERDAY'S lunchtime concert at the NCH offered an enjoyable programme of good-quality music of the not-too-serious kind. Although James Cavanagh's conducting of the RTECO did not explore the deeper reaches of Sibelius's Karelia Suite or Saint-Saens's Danse Macabre works which can raise a real frisson - the concert was pleasing for its natural shaping, good orchestral balance and committed playing.
Gavin Roche (the brass finalist in the 1994 RTE Musician of the Future Competition) was the soloist in Concertino for Trombone and Strings by the Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson. This journeyman music explores the conventional possibilities of the trombone in a way calculated to appeal to the player. Fully on top of the piece's considerable technical demands, ranging from the extended cantabile of the second movement to the hectic pace of the third, Roche gave an impressive display of his abilities.
In some ways the most thorough performance was of two items from Leroy Anderson's Irish Suite, which ended the concert. However, I found afterwards that my memory and that of many others lingered on Saint-Saens's Danse Macabre. This outstanding character piece was nicely paced and featured some gripping solo violin playing from the RTECO's leader, Michael Darcy.