Overture-Mignon - Thomas Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise - Chopin Family Portrait (Movements 1, 3 and 13) -Don Ray Coppelia - Excerpts - Delibes
Tuesday's lunchtime concert in the NCH consisted of music that called for another dimension. Thomas' Overture-Mignon was a door opening into an opera we were not to hear; Chopin's Grand Polonaise calls for a player who can act out the excitement generated by the music; Don Ray's Family Portrait seemed designed to accompany a television series about the American West; and Delibes' ballet music without dancers is fair-ground fodder.
Proinnsias O Duinn and the RTECO did their best with the material. The mostly lively tunes were vigorously delivered and Don Ray's Picnic on the Great Snake River was full of jazzy enthusiasm in the manner of Copland. In the performance of Coppelia one could see why Delibes was praised by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky but in the concert hall the repetitions soon pall.
The most pleasing aspect of the concert was Ruth McGinley's interpretation of the Andante Spianato - this was unaccompanied - of Chopin. She formed a singing line of the utmost delicacy and created an atmosphere that transcended the sounds.