Peer Gynt Suite No 1 - Grieg

Flute Concerto - Nielsen

Symphony No 2 - Sibelius

Friday night's concert at the National Concert Hall was a fine start for the National Symphony Orchestra's week-long tour of Ireland. With the exception of Nielsen's notoriously knotty Flute Concerto, the tour's programme of Scandinavian music offers plenty of opportunities for playing to the gallery. So it was all the more impressive that this opening concert made its considerable impact without any such indulgence.

The confident, defined playing of the soloist in the Nielsen, William Dowdall, and the generally good ensemble made for a performance which was creditable, though short on persuasive power. Conductor Gerhard Markson and the NSO worked hard at the orchestral part, but rarely brought life to their elaborate interchanges with the soloist in this demanding and comparatively unfamiliar music.

There was no shortage of life in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, which saw the NSO's strings at their finely shaded best. The way this music spoke - simply and without striving - felt just right.

Markson's forceful, independent approach to Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 produced a committed response from the orchestra.

The NSO, conducted by Gerhard Markson, plays at Galway tonight, Cork on Thursday and Waterford on Friday.