Michael Dervan reviews the London Mozart Players under the baton of James Galway at the NCH in Dublin and Siobhán Long reviews Legends of Irish Folk at the Gaiety Theatre also in Dublin

London Mozart Players/James Galway
NCH, Dublin

Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Divertimento in D K136. Flute Concerto in D K314.
Anton Stamitz - Concerto in G for two flutes.
Mozart - Symphony No 29.

The National Concert Hall continued its 25th anniversary celebrations on Sunday with a concert by the London Mozart Players under James Galway.

Galway's imprint as a conductor is not at all like his imprint as a flautist. His favoured style in the orchestral works by Mozart was tonally lean, the manner airy, crisp and upbeat.

The three works he conducted - Eine kleine Nachtmusik, the early Salzburg Divertimento in D, and the delightful Symphony in A, K201 - are pieces that often sound as if they can play themselves. Galway's way was to present them as straightforward and tuneful, with the minimum of fuss apart from the occasional, intrusive, personal touch, like the sticky rubato he resorted to a couple of times in the opening movement of Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

The great man's flute playing is as nimble as ever. He left his listeners in no doubt about that with two samplings of the Badinerie from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in the encores, one extra fast and the other extra, extra fast.

Mozart has never seemed to me the best vehicle for the Galway flute sound -the music simply doesn't call for the intense, piercing sweetness that is its trademark. In the Flute Concerto in D, player and composer were most at one in the dancing grace of the finale.

Mozart made some highly uncomplimentary remarks about fellow composer Anton Stamitz, and the formulaic manner of his Concerto in G for two flutes (with the second part played by Jeanne Galway) would certainly go a long way to reinforcing his verdict.

The two-flute arrangement of Mozart's Rondo a la Turca, played as one of the encores, may be about as un-PC as you can get in the musical world. But it was a lot more rewarding on every level than the pleasantries of the unfortunate Stamitz.

Michael Dervan

Legends of Irish Folk,
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

With a vocal range no wider than the Lartigue narrow gauge railway, Ronnie Drew makes no claim to fame in the baritone stakes. But his less than dulcet tones still delivered him the bones of a solid pension plan on Saturday night as he launched headlong into McAlpine's Fusiliers.

Licences to print money don't often come the way of a quintet long both of tooth and of memory, but this tour, hot on the heels of two double CDs, would have had Alan Greenspan licking his chops in envy. Jim McCann was a capable MC, while Ronnie, Johnny McEvoy, Liam Clancy and Finbar Furey each ambled through a knacky set list that offered them few challenges.

Liam Clancy and Johnny McEvoy both delivered capable performances, and Finbar Furey managed to ignite a fire in his belly as he handled flute, guitar, banjo and pipes with skill and grace. Furey's interpretive skills served him well on The Green Fields Of France, but his vocal postures hinted at an illicit liaison between Christie Hennessy and Elvis Presley as he crooned I Will Love You.

Siobhán Long