NSO/Howard Shelley

Thieving Magpie Overture - Rossini

Piano Concerto No 2 - Saint-Saens

Variations and Fugue on a theme of Purcell - Britten

Personal charisma and sound musicianship were the hallmarks of Howard Shelley's concert with the National Symphony Orchestra last Friday lunchtime. The National Concert Hall was well-filled for a programme which included SaintSaens's Piano Concerto No. 2.

It is anachronistic to direct from the piano a concerto written in the age of the conductor. Yet this performance showed that it can be done without loss, and possibly with gain.

In a piece scored for a medium-sized orchestra and full of Romantic re-workings of Baroque and Classical gestures, there was that tightness which can come when everyone is on their toes. Shelley's playing - dashing, but aware of stylistic subtleties - and his facility in directing the orchestra and turning the pages of the score, seemed as one. There were fleeting problems with ensemble, but the members of the NSO gave their all. The result was fullblooded and always a pleasure.

The Thieving Magpie Overture lacked some of that essential Rossinian deftness. But Britten's Variations and Fugue on a theme of Purcell, matched the SaintSaens in attaining a panache which did justice to the composer's virtuosity.

Shelley's approach was shapely yet attuned to the drama inherent in Britten's procession of instrumental displays. (The piece was written for a film about the instruments of the orchestra.) I have heard the NSO play with more polish than this; but the commitment and certainty of this performance made it a winner.