Over-amplified anniversary concert

La revue de cuisine - Martinu

Songs Gershwin/Kelehan Facade - Walton

During the last 10 years or so, RTE has shown itself an avid promoter of what might be regarded as concerts for the hard of hearing. The national broadcaster has felt the need for amplification, for instance, in Mahler's Eighth Symphony, in Verdi's Aida, in The Merry Widow at the National Concert Hall, and, of course, in everything and anything at the Proms.

Unfortunately, the appointment of Niall Doyle as music director last July does not seem to have brought an end to the unpleasant habit. What was surely the nadir in RTE's use - or rather hyper-use - of amplification was reached in a 50th anniversary concert by members of the RTECO in the RDS Library on Monday.

Walton's Facade is a one-of-a-kind piece, an "entertainment" with sharp and witty music accompanying the recitation of 21 nonsense poems by Edith Sitwell. It calls for only a small ensemble, here conducted by RTECO principal conductor, Proinnsias O Duinn. With lo-fi amplification delivering more sound from the sides of the audience than the musicians were making at the front, little evidence reached the ear of Walton's precocious craft - he was only 20 when the first version of the piece was premiered in 1922.

Cathryn Brennan's consistently raised voice grated strongly as a result of the amplification. The simpler delivery and greater rhythmic acuity of Sean Rocks communicated more successfully.

Martinu's Revue de cuisine, which opened this 1920s programme, needs not only finer balancing into foreground and background than it received on this occasion, but also a greater sense of jazz savvy to set it in the right referential framework. Noel Kelehan's instrumental additions to a number of Gershwin songs did not seem to add significantly to the composer's own keyboard arrangements, on which they were based.