Reviews

Irish Timeswriters review a selection of events from the arts world.

NYSOI/Klas, Mahony Hall, The Helix, Dublin

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 1 (Winter Daydreams)
Strauss - Ein Heldenleben

It's always a time of change in youth orchestras, where the imposition of age restrictions inevitably ensures a high turnover in membership. But the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ireland is currently undergoing an even more radical change.

Joanna Crooks, its voluntary manager for 10 years and the person who among other things steered the orchestra through the remarkable achievement of complete performances of Wagner's Ring in Limerick and Birmingham, stepped down in August and a full-time successor has to be appointed.

For the audience at The Helix's Mahony Hall on Saturday, however, it was business as usual.

Estonian conductor Eri Klas, who has an impressive track record with the orchestra, took charge for the third time.

Once again, in Tchaikovsky's First Symphony (Winter Daydreams), he encouraged a wealth of tonal sophistication from his young musicians, and reaped the dividend of always keeping the bigger picture in focus. The weakest moments in the playing mirrored the weakest moments of the music, when the composer relaxed into the patter of time-filling passage-work.

Richard Strauss's composer-as-hero self-portrait, Ein Heldenleben, got off to a choppy and brittle start, with Klas driving rather too roughly through the opening section.

And he didn't always manage to keep his forces as skilfully balanced as in the Tchaikovsky, with the impressive weight of the heavy brass too often flattening all that was in front of them.

Yet the performance settled in over time, and the important and hugely demanding violin solos were taken with sensitive maturity by Michael Trainor, whose contributions identified him as a player to watch. - Michael Dervan

RTÉ NSO/Maloney, NCH, Dublin

Suppe - Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna Overture
Johann Strauss - Champagne Polka
Dvorak - New World Symphony

With the waltz and the polka still in season, a four-movement symphony may seem an unlikely choice for a new year's lunchtime concert. But there's no better antidote to post-Beethoven seriousness than Dvorak's pot-pourri of irresistible melody from the New World.

Interpretively, the greatest challenge this well-loved and well-worn symphony poses is its implacable familiarity. The score is so straightforward, so free of ambiguous directions and awkward transitions, that it offers the conductor little scope for a personal reading.

A fresh approach to a tempo, an articulation or an instrumental balance will risk coming across as a mere performative gimmick.

So it was much to the credit of Gavin Maloney, the RTÉ NSO's young assistant conductor, that he was able to bring off this old favourite in his own distinctive way.

The wisdom was in the pacing: there was a certainty and a naturalness to all the basic tempos - especially the first movement's allegro. Yet it was in the finale particularly that Maloney's instinct for when to relax and when to revitalise was most impressively evident.

From the orchestra came a smooth opening by the lower strings, some nicely pointed violin playing, the nostalgic plaint of the cor anglais, and the clean calling of horns. It was a pity that such thoughtful direction was not rewarded with a consistently clean response from all the woodwinds. - Andrew Johnstone

Aladdin, Axis Centre, Ballymun

Axis was founded five years ago, and community spirit is what drives and informs its individual promotions. The seasonal pantomime, under the banner of Holding Court Theatre Group, is imbued with a sense of locality and camaraderie that makes it different and happily infectious.

The traditional story is souped up here. An amiable young narrator delivers a prologue, followed by a strapping Aladdin singing Ain't That a Kick in the Head with a line of dancers behind him.

Next on is his mother, Widow Twanky, who immediately enlists the help of the audience. She has a distressing habit of wiping her nose with her sleeve, and asks that the boys and girls, whenever they see her lapse, should shout "hankie, Twanky".

There is a lot more along those lines as the villain Ala Baster tricks Aladdin into delivering the magic lamp to him. The genie duly appears, but so does the delectable genie of the ring whose magic delivers Aladdin and Princess Bud from the villain's clutches. The usual appeal to the audience - to execute or spare the miscreant - results in his pardon.

Permeating the storyline are several novelties. There are at least three groups of dancers and they've all got rhythm and energy to burn.

The music programme is a blend of the lively and the nostalgic, and the finale, with the whole cast whooping it up, makes for a rousing conclusion. - Gerry Colgan