Midsummer Night's Dream (exc) - Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto in E minor - Mendelssohn
Pique Dame Overture - Suppe
Coppelia Suite (exc) - Delibes
Clog Dance - Hertel/John Lanchberry
L'Arlesienne Suite No 2 - Bizet
The RTE Concert Orchestra's teatime summer series ended well in the NCH last Friday. This was despite a disappointing start with the opening item, Mendelssohn's Scherzo, Nocturne and Wedding March for A Mid-summer Night's Dream, which had problems with speed and timing.
The concert's second half, which also featured 19th-century music for theatre, went much better. It included a lively account of Bizet's L'Arlesienne Suite No 2 and, best of all, some truly stylish playing during three movements from Delibes's Coppelia Suite.
The highlight of the evening came before the interval, in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor which, for all its romantic flair, is closer to classical concertos than to the beefy richness of Bruch.
It was written for Ferdinand David, the leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which Mendelssohn was the conductor. Until a year ago, Michael d'Arcy had been, for six years, leader of the RTECO, which is around the same size as the Leipzig orchestra was then.
Familiarity and mutual understanding showed in many ways, including some of the most subtle accompanying I have heard from this orchestra and its principal conductor, Proinnsias O Duinn.
This is one of those works which, because of its perfection, can misfire badly; or it can feel just right, as it did on this occasion. I have heard soloists play it with a more dazzling technique than Michael d'Arcy showed, or probably was interested in showing. But not all of them captured so effectively this music's finesse, its feeling of effortless invention.