Il Signor Bruschino overture - Rossini
The Birds - Respighi
Guitar Concerto Op 99 - CastelnuovoTedesco
Scherzo a la Russe - Stravinsky
Colman Pearce was the conductor for the RTE Concert Orchestra's lunchtime concert at the National Concert Hall last Tuesday. His programme was typically independent and exploratory.
These concerts are built around accessible music, and that was what we got. The ordering of works produced a neat line of links and contrasts. Yet only one of them, Respighi's suite The Birds, was likely to be familiar to more than a few people present.
Placing the Respighi after Rossini's little-known Il Signor Bruschino overture, revealed more points in common between these composers than is suggested by their bestknown link, La boutique fantasque, which colourfully reworks music by Rossini.
The soloist in Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Guitar Concerto Op 99 was Leslie Cassidy. This is a gentle piece, and even though Cassidy's playing was inclined to be a little untidy, his restraint and thoughtfulness suited it in many respects.
However, in the last movement there was a palpable want of the rhythmic bite implied by the composer's "Ritmico e cavalleresco" marking, and achieved handsomely by the orchestra.
Throughout the concert, the RTECO was responsive to dynamic detail.
Colman Pearce did not force things, but allowed this colourful programme to speak for itself. The clarity of the playing revealed some weaknesses of tone at low volume, and of ensemble.
But on balance this was a price worth paying.
It was a neat touch to end with Scherzo a la Russe, Stravinsky's 1940s, sock-it-to-me mix of American razzle-dazzle, jazz and Russian colour. As a friend remarked, after so much tranquil music, something like that was needed.