{TABLE} Piano Concerto No 2................. Beethoven Symphony No 9 (Great)............... Schubert {/TABLE} THE National Concert Hall has been advertising the partnership of Radu Lupu and, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra as the pianist's first concerto appearance in Ireland. The claim, however, is an empty one, as Lupu appeared with the RTESO in Dublin as long ago as 1971. And his collaboration in Beethoven with the American conductor David Zinman goes back a long way, too, as they were teamed together in a cycle of the concertos broadcast by the BBC in the mid 1970s.

In Beethoven's Second Concerto, Lupu, seated tightly (as is his custom) in a chair rather than on a stool, played as if he were at a pianistic level concerned to embody the very spirit of aristocratic poise and at a musical level to communicate a glow of bonhomie.

With the exception of the first movement cadenza (Lupu's own?), the gruffer and more disruptive aspects of Beethoven's musical make-up were left to the orchestra to express.

On the face of it, this chalk-and-cheese approach might sound a risky undertaking. In practice, the mixture of apparently easy-going geniality and sharp expressive thrust proved almost entirely pleasurable.

Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra has a long history (it was founded in 1868), and has had association with some notable names (among them Hans Rosbaud and Rudolf Kempe), but its current profile is more national than international.

Its strengths in Schubert's Great C major Symphony under David Zinman, its current conductor, were an easy mid-range lyricism - set out clearly by the cellos in the slow introduction - and a naturalness of give and take which served the long span of this symphony very well.

The violin tone, however, is not always distinguished at higher volumes, which made the conductor's rather unyielding approach in the finale somewhat fatiguing.

Two encores were offered, by Brahms and Schubert, with the best moments coming in the wind-dominated central section of the Allegretto of Schubert's Third Symphony. Here the first clarinet stood out as particularly appealing.