Mozart with some mystery

{TABLE} De aankomst ...................................... Otto Ketting Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, K297b ............ Mozart Symphony No 12 ................................... Shostakovich {/TABLE} THE National Symphony Orchestra, making its first appearance under principal d'conductor Kasper de Roo since last June, offered a programme of three rarities at the National Concert Hall last night.

The opening work, Dutch composer Otto Ketting's De aankomst (The Arrival), one of a "quartet" of pieces relating, to aspects of travel, is cast in freely roving, generally bright and busy minimalist mould. Its best idea is an ear catching, scorpion tailed motif for horns heard near the start and again at the end.

The original score of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, for flute, oboe, horn and bassoon, has never been traced, and there has always been dispute about the provenance of the work discovered by the 19th century Mozart biographer, Otto John, which is scored for oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon.

Computer assisted analysis has been brought to bear on the surviving material by the scholars Daniel N. Leeson and Robert D. Levin, which has satisfied them that the solo parts "display a specific pattern of proportions and thematic content found only in authentic Mozart concertos".

No clue was offered in the printed programme about the version played by four wind principals of the NSO William Dowdall (flute), Matthew Manning (oboe), Lesley Bishop (horn) and Michael Jones (has soon) the programme note, believe it or not, was actually about the version with clarinet.

The change from clarinet to flute is actually quite radical in its effects, making for a generally blander texture, though (when played on modern instruments) with an amount of vibrato rarely encountered from clarinettists.

The four soloists worked together hand in glove and made light of the music's difficulties. What was missing, however, was a sense of bite or edge that would have dispersed a slight feeling of blandness, that may have had as much to do with the version used as the suavity of the playing.

The concert ended with one of the less frequently heard of Shostakovich's symphonies, No. 12, subtitled 1917. This work finds the composer on autopilot, with the hazard warning light for bombast flashing madly in the background. It's a manner Shostakovich knew how to milk with, deadly efficiency.

The symphony is a piece of music which is obviously rewarding to play Kasper de Roo and the NSO generally gauged its excesses well but which I find about as spiritually rewarding as a Party rally.