Prelude a l'apresmidi d'un faune - Debussy

Piano Concerto in G - Ravel

Carmen Suite - Rodion Shchedrin

There can't be many works which serve equally well at either end of a concert programme. The 1967 ballet, Carmen Suite, by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, which experienced such a vogue when it was new, is certainly among those which do. When Alexander Anissimov programmed it in 1998 as the work to open his three years as principal conductor of the NSO, it seemed rather too long for its content. Placed at the end, as in last Friday's programme, it sounded altogether too light to make up a satisfactory second half.

Shchedrin's is a clever piece of work, Bizet slickly updated for strings and percussion so that you never miss the brass. It's a virtual lexicon of orchestral deception, with all sorts of subtle shimmering and shadowing to suggest a range of sounds you would expect to be beyond the resources of even a large body of strings and percussion. The conductor, Vladimir Altschuler, got disciplined playing from the strings, but often allowed undue prominence to the percussion. Anissimov's better integrated approach was more mysterious and captivating.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet played Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, in which the influences range from Mozart to jazz, with an effective, thrusting energy. Something of the work's inherent lightness and freedom of spirit was, however, missing from his forcefully presented interpretation.

French music in general is not one of the NSO's strong points. So the firm yet pliant, measured yet easeful performance of Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune was particularly welcome, and a fitting start to a concert dedicated to the memory of a colleague, the RTECO percussionist, Tony Kavanagh, who died on Wednesday. Perhaps it was, in part, the sheer quality of the handling of the opening work which caused the rest of the concert to seem something of an anti-climax.