{TABLE} Five Pieces for Orchestra Op 16 ...................... Schoenberg Symphony No 8 ........................................ Bruckner {/TABLE} THE National Concert Hall's 15th anniversary celebrations have brought Dublin audiences the unusual prospect of visits in successive months from two of America's leading orchestras.

Last month's concert by the New York Philharmonic, newly revitalised by Kurt Masur, proved something of an anti climax. For a while, last night, it sounded as if the Chicago Symphony, under Daniel Barenboim, was going to offer a repeat experience.

The visionary expressionism of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, which rank among the most remarkable works of the first decade of this century, seemed somehow restrained, even tamed in this performance.

After the interval, however, all was changed, as Barenboim and his players conjured up the most cultured of Brucknerian sound worlds. Barenboim's is a measured Bruckner, distinguished by luxuriantly cushioned string tone and, throughout the orchestra, particularly rich in its detailing of lower lines.

The Eighth Symphony, with its particularly extended Adagio and Finale, is some thing of a colossus among 19th century symphonies. Barenboim's approach was at its strongest in the faster opening movements, the threatening move towards laboured weightiness revealing itself fully only in the Trio of the Scherzo.

The sense of holding back in the great Adagio yielded moments of high intensity. Hand in hand with these, however, there was also a pervasive stasis which made the movement feel unconscionably long. And, in spite of the recurring resplendent calls to attention in the Finale, the thread of continuity here, too, was allowed to lose tension.

(Barenboim was following Robert Haas's version of the score, the longer of the two most commonly heard.)

With the orchestra playing on the flat (the lack of risers for the players was counteracted by a particularly high podium for the conductor), both the blend and distinctiveness of the various instrumental choirs seemed to be enhanced. To the best of my knowledge, this arrangement was the one intended by the hall's acoustic consultant on this occasion it worked extremely well. Even with this seating arrangement, the full fire of the Chicago brass, as unleashed in the Finale a particularly riveting and unforgettable thrill in its own right did at times become musically overpowering.