RTÉ Concert Orchestra in National Concert Hall, on 23 August 2016

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s summer lunchtime concerts draw a large audience, of all ages, and today – despite the rain – is no exception. Today’s concert features guest conductor Ernst van Tiel and solo flautist (and Classical Plec Pick for 2016) Miriam Kaczor. As this is also a live broadcast, RTÉ lyric fm’s Niall Carroll presents the concert from the stage, introducing each piece in a relaxed, informal style.

The concert begins on a serious note with Sibelius’ tone poem Finlandia. Its urgent fanfare opening is a brilliant wash of sound, with the orchestra’s brass section in good form. Van Tiel sets a strong, commanding tempo as the work develops, projecting the work’s intensity, and the lyrical chorale section is nicely characterised.

The concert orchestra follows this with Kabalevsky’s music for The Comedians, a suite of ten short movements originally composed for a children’s play. This is attractive and colourful music, and the ensemble brings it to life with real enthusiasm. The well-known ‘Galop’, delivered at speed, had young heads bobbing along, while the other movements showed plenty of good humour and a feeling for theatrical gesture. The ‘Intermezzo’ inspires beautifully transparent textures, and the suite is rounded off with a brilliant flourish.

Miriam Kaczor comes to the stage as the main soloist in Hamilton Harty’s atmospheric In Ireland, alongside the orchestra’s harpist Geraldine O’Doherty. Imagining an impressionistic early morning scene in Dublin between two street musicians, the piece shows off Kaczor’s fresh and engaging playing style at its best. She employs a sweet, singing tone with an innate feeling for melodic phrasing, bringing across the rapid passagework with style. The work’s lightness and brevity is a good fit for the programme, and hopefully we will be able to hear her in more substantial material in the future. The work features some lovely woodwind playing from the ensemble, and also looks ahead to next month’s ‘Composing the Island’ festival of Irish music at the concert hall (when it can be heard again, this time in a version for chamber musicians).

The concert draws to a close with three movements from The Three-Cornered Hat ballet suite by Manuel de Falla. Once again, the orchestra brings out the colour and drama of this dance music with some excellent playing, including a fine solo from principal horn Cormac Ó hAdáin in the second movement, bringing some welcome colour and warmth to an otherwise grey day.

Programme:

Sibelius: Finlandia

Kabalevsky: The Comedians: Suite for Small Orchestra, Op. 26

Harty: In Ireland

Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2