Merry Wives of Windsor Overture - Nicolai
Oboe Concertino - Soderlundh
Circus Polka - Stravinsky
Pavane - Faure
Swan Lake (exc) - Tchaikovsky
Two items in last Tuesday's lunchtime orchestral concert at the National Concert Hall stood out. Throughout the programme of 19th- and 20th-century music, the playing was never less than reliable. However, in the solo part of the Oboe Concertino by the Swedish composer Lille Bror Soderlundh (1912-57), Matthew Manning's playing was a model of accomplishment, both in perky agility and in long-spun lines.
The string accompaniment in this well-wrought, light and folksy piece typified an intermittent limitation of this concert. Conductor James Cavanagh kept things moving along and ensemble with the soloist was generally good. However, complex rhythms tended to be dispatched in a bar-by-bar way, and the overall effect might have been more persuasive with a more risky, goal-driven style of phrasing. The same could be said of Faure's Pavane - always a tricky prospect - and, to a lesser extent, of Stravinsky's Circus Polka, though the latter was suitably galumphing. After all, it was written for Barnum and Bailey's circus elephants!
The most complete performance, by some margin, was of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. From the flexible rhythmic panache of the Czardas to the steady drive of the Waltz, James Cavanagh and the NSO produced a rhythmic panache and balanced orchestral colour which captured much of the essence of this music.
