{TABLE} Toccata - La morte d'Orfeo ............... David Byers Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo ........... Copland Madrigale - Ecco Orfeo ................... David Byers Symphony No 2 ............................ Rachmaninov {/TABLE} LAST NIGHT, at UCD's O'Reilly Hall, the Ulster Youth Orchestra presented the second of three concerts on consecutive nights (Enniskillen, Dublin and Belfast). For this demanding schedule the UYO had a no less demanding programme.

I liked the arrangement of the first half, where two related pieces by David Byers - commissioned by the UYO, with assistance from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland - sandwiched the Four Dance Episodes from Copland's Rodeo. Byers's Toccata - La morte d'Orfeo and Madrigale - Ecco Orfeo draw on material from Monteverdi's seminal opera L'Orfeo; they skilfully apply quasi renaissance parody techniques to a strongly late 20th century idiom. The pieces are well tailored to a youth orchestra and have that rugged directness, allied with a wide expressive range, which is a hallmark of much of Byers's music.

In this music, and even more in the Copland, I wished that the conductor, Takuo Yuasa, would have been willing to take risks, and to urge expressive definition, rather than concentrate on orchestral discipline.

It seemed that careful exactness was Yuasa's priority, even in the first few minutes of Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2; but during the first movement this performance gradually took off.

One of the UYO's great strengths is the disciplined unanimity of each section, and this was especially evident in the knowing orchestral balance of complex textures - a credit to the various rehearsal tutors, as well as to everyone directly involved in the performance. The slow movement and the Finale were especially good in this respect, and the former was helped along by some excellent solo playing.

One expects a good youth orchestra to show plenty of guts, even at the expense of finesse. In this symphony, at least, that expectation was amply fulfilled.