Ulster Orchestra/Takuo Yuasa

Overture `The Bartered Bride' - Smetana

Piano Concerto No 4 - Rachmaninov

Symphony No 15 - Shostakovich

The current season of Ulster Orchestra concerts is the most interesting they have given for some time, as special funding has enabled them to tackle works, such as the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies of Mahler, which have so far not yet been played in the North of Ireland.

This concert included the Ulster Orchestra's first performance of Shostakovich's last symphony, a great work which is certainly the greatest of the later symphonies. On record the bleak slow movement can seem long and drawn out, but heard live in a hall with any ambience these few sparse phrases are very moving. The playing throughout was admirably clean-cut and well-balanced, although one missed the special quality that Russian brass and bassoons can give, and the first movement could have done with cleaner string intonation and a bit more bite. But Yuasa is not one to labour implicit ironies and there is a lot to be said for an interpretation which lets the work speak for itself. The cryptic final movement made a particular impact.

The Shostakovich has previously been played here by the Queen's University Orchestra, but I can't recall a previous performance of the Rachmaninov. It's his least-played concerto but in many ways it is also his most interesting, and Vladimir Ovchinnikov gave an excellent performance of the revised 1941 version. Previously the Ulster Orchestra strings had demonstrated admirable discipline in the Smetana Overture.