Serenade for Strings - Elgar

Violin Concerto in E minor - Mendelssohn

Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. Delius Symphony No 39 - Mozart

The English Chamber Orchestra's concert at the National Concert Hall last night represented a fashionable but not always welcome trend in modern orchestral style. Emphasising the articulation of events rather than of line originated partly in the early music revival, and in some quarters has become axiomatic. Even in 18th- and 19th-century orchestral music it can bring a breath of fresh air - literally - as recordings by Harnoncourt and Norrington sometimes show. Apply it willy-nilly and it rapidly becomes unwelcome.

That is exactly what the English conductor Charles Hazlewood did. His chatty introductions to each piece (give me a concise, informative programme note any time) made much of "goal-oriented music"; but goal-orientation was obvious only because it was absent from the performances.

Delius suffered most. His On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and Summer Night on the River had plenty of surges and flexibility; but these were bar-by-bar, and there was no accumulation of shape or energy. These balmy yet intense pieces were not merely dull - they were incoherent. Nor was there much character in the performance of Elgar's Serenade for Strings, which replaced the originally billed Introduction and Allegro - a better and much more demanding piece by the same composer. The high standards of musicianship that one normally associates with this orchestra emerged only in parts of Mozart's Symphony No. 39.

In Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor the soloist was Hideko Udagawa. Wilful flexibility can be wonderful (think of Kreisler or young Menuhin); but not when it is so nervy, tight, and peppered with wanton intonation.

Apart from some immediate bustle, the solo part had little rhythmic charge or melodic grace. This wonderful piece was a low point in a frustrating concert.