Reviews

Till Eulenspiegel was the opening work in the National Symphony Orchestra's concert last Friday night at the National Concert Hall. The conductor, Takuo Yuasa, encouraged a tense yet flexible rhythmic style and pointed attention to detail. In many respects, the result was admirable; but because the few opportunities for Romantic warmth were missed, the performance was heavy-handed.

Colin Currie (percussion), NSO/Takuo Yuasa, NCH, Martin Adams

Till Eulenspiegel Strauss

Der gerettete Alberich Christopher Rouse

Symphony No 1 Walton

Without persuasive contrasts, the work lives up to Hanslick's negative opinion that beneath a glittering surface lies a mere "box of tricks".

Walton's Symphony No 1 also fell short of what it can achieve. For all its flaws, this specimen of 1930s bravado can be astonishingly invigorating. But on this occasion it was not sufficiently phrase-driven. There was plenty of local rhythmic charge, but the ostinato figures which run through much of this work rarely achieved the sustained momentum to create an underlying staying power.

The only persuasive performance came in a work composed in 1997 by the American composer Christopher Rouse. Wondering what havoc the evil but not unsympathetic Alberich might wreak in the godless world left after the end of Wagner's Ring, Rouse produced the Fantasy for Solo Percussion and Orchestra Der gerettete Alberich, peppered with Wagnerian references and chaotic dismemberments, wreaked primarily by the percussion.

It is not all that often that one encounters a fun piece that one can take seriously. Although there are some flat spots in the slow movement, the composer is in command of his resources and material; and it is hard to imagine a soloist better fitted to this demanding piece than the Scottish percussionist Colin Currie. With gestures physical and musical, he made everything count and seemed to inspire the other musicians to a level of authority which the rest of the concert never managed.

Nobuko Imai (viola), Ulster Orchestra/Ilan, Volkov, Ulster Hall,

Michael Dervan

Manfred OvertureSchumann

Symphonic VariationsDvorak

Harold in Italy Berlioz

The programme offered by the Ulster Orchestra on Friday could be described as a Byronic sandwich - Schumann's overture inspired by Manfred and Berlioz's symphony inspired, very loosely, by Childe Harold, with Dvorak's ingenious Symphonic Variations in between

The Israeli guest conductor Ilan Volkov showed why he's been creating such a stir in music centres around the world. Although he's still only in his mid-twenties, this young man has already been snapped up as chief conductor by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

His approach on Friday yielded a wealth of well-thought-out detail - moments where the orchestral sonority was exceptionally fresh in colour, texture and balance. And he has an ability to point and drive a melody with controlled urgency, adding an exciting anticipatory edge to the playing without the distortion of undue force.

Dvorak's Symphonic Variations is a sort of cyclopedia of the composer's orchestral art, an unpreposessing theme decked in a range of flattering colours, and disguised in a wealth of new material. Volkov captured the composer's fertility of imagination with resourceful deftness.

His handling of the other two works wasn't quite at the same level. The special touches were still there, but somehow the desired overall picture failed to emerge from the moment-by-moment success.

Berlioz's Harold in Italy is, of course, a tough nut to crack, for soloist as well as conductor. Paganini, who paid for it, didn't ever play it. Even with a viola under his chin instead of a violin, he didn't want to spend so much time on stage and idle. Modern viola players are not so concerned about taking part in a symphony with an obbligato viola part, though some of today's first-rank soloists are apt to see themselves as the main attraction when their role is more that of commentator.

Friday's solid contribution from Nobuko Imai sometimes yielded to this temptation, creating a situation where, in truth, more turned out to be less.

Picturehouse, Vicar Street, Peter Crawley

There's an awkward tension between a band and their fans when it comes to debuting new material. By definition, fans are supportive, but every music act fears the cost of alienating its paymasters. Despite taking tentative steps away from the relentlessly upbeat three-minute codas of their popular oeuvre, Picturehouse chose to play it safe.

Windows to the Soul, the Dublin band's forthcoming title, suggests a deep gaze into a darker pool than the Ray Ban-tinted sunny views the crowd came to hear. Rarely, in fact, has an audience seemed so eager to get into a venue early, or so willing to queue.

Tiptoeing around their expectations, frontman Dave Brown led the five-piece into the cosy familiarity of Only a Friend, a slice of melodic guitar pop that managed to be both yearning and bubbly at the same time - something of a Picturehouse signature. Crowd favourites Thanx and You and I eased the assembled into the eventual inclusion of new material. Not quite at ease within Vicar Street's cramped dimensions, guitarist Steo Farrell played rooted to the spot, while Brown's eyebrows proved the most animated performers onstage. Seeking the skies but finding only the balcony, searching spotlights lent an odd prison-break atmosphere to Breaking In Breaking Out, an unremittingly catchy new tune.

Upcoming single Everybody Loves my Girl delivered tub-thumping angst, but, as Brown's deference to the sing-along audience avowed, the oldies rang loudest. Not even a begrudgingly bloodless rendition of It's a Heavenly Day could defeat the crowd's buoyancy. The biggest cheer, however, saluted 1999's pop behemoth Sunburst.