After the Rain - Barry Guy

Saxophone Concerto - Michael Torke

The Confession of Isobel Gowdie - James MacMillan

At the first of four concerts in the Explorer Series, the enthusiastic cheers which greeted the climactic swell at the end of Scottish composer James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990) should give RTE the message that there is a genuine appetite for an appreciation of contemporary music in Dublin that it has been failing to address.

MacMillan, who introduced his work in conversation with conductor Colman Pearce from the stage, is a composer of clear vision and vivid gesture. His pieces can have strong extra-musical associations (Isobel Gowdie was burned at the stake after confessing to witchcraft) without, necessarily, the depictive connotations of programme music. Stylistically he marries the emotional directness of film music with an eclectic range of up-to-the-minute compositional effects. Gowdie, with its pattern of slow surges, typically overlaid with elements of jagged, combative argument, and clear moments of striking demarcation, showed how potent his work can be.

Tuesday's performance also attested to its robustness in the face of limited rehearsal and the warm-hearted generalities of Colman Pearce's conducting style. Gerard McChrystal was a confident soloist in the 1993 Saxophone Concerto by the leading US post-minimalist, Michael Torke. But the conductor brought opacity rather than tingling clarity to the scoring and wasn't adept at channelling the music's driving energy.

The strings-only After the Rain (1992), written by Kilkenny-based Londoner Barry Guy for the 20th anniversary of Richard Hickox's City of London Sinfonia, is an open-hearted, anti-war response to Max Ernst's painting, Europe After the Rain. Its very directness tended to sound naive in the rough-edged performance it received on this occasion.

The next concert in the NSO's (free) Explorer Series is on Tuesday, February 16th. For tickets ring 01 208 3127.