Serenade for Strings - Tchaikovsky
Symphony No 14 - Shostakovich
The conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk has a knack of getting a lot out of an orchestra. That valuable quality was evident throughout the Irish Chamber Orchestra's concert - the last of a three-concert tour - at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
I have never heard the Waltz movement from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings played as it was at this concert. Instead of the standard, muscular swing of the ballet, there was a leisurely, quiet dance of filigree lightness. It contradicted the composer's dynamic markings, at least; but it worked, and it was delightful.
This was a heart-warming account of the serenade, shaped by very long, goal-driven melodies. The playing had a richness and variety which brought out the subtleties and intensities of Tchaikovsky's peerless scoring.
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14, scored for strings, percussion and two singers, is a setting of eleven poems on death by Lorca, Apollinaire, Kuchelbecker and Rilke.
Mary Plazas (soprano) and Stanislav Schvets (bass) sounded ideal for this music - excellent in delivering its intense, declaimed vocal lines, and at colouring the voice to work with the sonorities of the orchestra. The ICO and Mak symiuk were on top form in music which is as demanding for its individuality as for its technical challenges. Such resourcefulness with technique, and the convincing identification with two highly-contrasted works, made this concert among the best of the many I have heard from the ICO.