{TABLE} Holberg Suite............................... Grieg Piano Concerto No 27 in B Flat K 595........ Mozart Serenade for Strings in E minor Op 20....... Elgar Symphony No 5 in B flat..................... Schubert {/TABLE} THE London Mozart Players last appeared here at the Belfast Festival some years ago. Although I don't have figures to hand, the orchestra that played on this occasion seemed smaller; they were certainly a better disciplined band -with a stronger sense of stylistic identity. The small forces employed, and the strings fine, transparent tone and sparing vibrato were ideal for the Mozart and Schubert items but also worked well in the Grieg and Elgar.
One wonders if Grieg wrote anything finer than his Holberg Suite. It has all the melodic charm one associates with him without any of the overstatement which mars works like the Piano Concerto. In any case, this was a performance you could just sit back and enjoy - fresh, finely shaded, and with some good folkish fiddling in the last movement.
The Mozart concerto, which Shelly directed from the key-board, was equally poised. In the slow movement one felt that he was exploring the expressive dimension of the music - especially in his capacity as soloist - without exceeding the boundaries of the eighteenth-century style. The piano dovetailed well with the orchestra throughout, even if the ensemble itself was not always immaculate.a
One missed this sense of personal identification with the music in the Elgar and Schubert items. The playing was as suave as ever, but one didn't feel that the inner pulse of the music was being caught. However, there was an agreeable encore in the shape of the last movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 29.