IT was a pleasure in itself to watch the svelte figure and balletic grace of conductor Proinnsias & Duinn as he conjured up music from the RTE Concert Orchestra, its members all dressed in angelic white though I do not think that seraphic band could be held responsible for the grossly inflated climaxes, the lack of balance between the sections of the orchestra and the general coarseness of tee sound. Could it be that RTE's engineers like the ghetto blaster effect, or is it that their equipment is not sophisticated enough for the job of amplifying an orchestra?

The music that most impressed, that seemed least distorted by the loudspeakers, was French Massenet's Ballet Music from Le Cid and Chabrier's Espaila. Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto became a grandiose blur from which the piano part, played by Phillip Martin struggled to emerge. The other composers represented Elgar, Rossini, Carl Davis, Litolff, Gliere and Khachaturian lost any sparkle they may have had in the acoustic pottage of Saturday night.

The audience bestowed their warmest applause on the nine piece band, Romanian Legend, led by Mircea Petcu, violinist with the RTECO. Their two selections of traditional Romanian music were given added colour by use of traditional instruments such as pan pipes and cymbalom the players of the last two performed solos of, astounding virtuosity. As its final item, the band played The Lark, a short piece as full of bird song as a wood on a summer's morning.

Finally, John Tate's Operatic Medley and a New Orleans Medley. These pieces, sturdily written to withstand amplification, went with the accustomed swing and the Promenaders swung to and fro and sang. The sea of boaters was framed with balloons and one felt this was the moment that everyone had been waiting for.