Ulster Orchestra/Dmitri Sitkovetsky

Four Russian Songs for Symphony Orchestra - Shchedrin

Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor - Rachmaninov

Scheherezade - Rimsky-Korsakov

When the Ulster Orchestra gave the first performance of Rodion Shchedrin's Four Russian Songs at last year's Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in London, it disappointed those who had been impressed by the same composer's Four Russian Pictures. Once again Shchedrin is picking his way through the remnants of Russia's musical past, but this time to less effect. The new piece begins and ends well but not very much happens in between.

Arcadi Volodos, the latest prodigy from the Russian piano stable, brought an almost bewildering co-ordination of hand and mind to Horowitz's Variations on a theme from Carmen (further varied, I suspect, by himself), and in the concerto revealed details normally hidden in the romantic wash of Rachmaninov's piano writing. With the help of Sitkovetsky's restrained but sensitive accompaniment, he showed that there is still life in this well-worn war-horse.

Leslie Hatfield tackled the violin solo in Scheherezade. One of the great solo parts of the orchestral repertoire, it requires not only virtuoso technique but also true solistic projection and bravura. This performance was certainly an improvement on the last attempt we heard, by the veteran leader of a visiting Russian orchestra, a player who experienced particular problems with the sustained harmonics at the end. Sitkovetsky brought warmth and brilliance to the performance, and rewarded us with two encores, the Khachaturian Waltz and an arrangement of Albeniz's Tango by Shchedrin.