Sinfonia No 7 in D minor - Mendelssohn
Sonata for Strings and Two Horns - Nicholas Maw
Divertimento in F, K247 - Mozart
The Irish Chamber Orchestra's four-venue tour ended in DCU on Sunday afternoon. The concert was held in the Larkin Theatre, where the dry acoustics are unforgiving and the furnishings spartan. But there can be compensations - engaging music-making can be all the more absorbing when the performers and audience are in such close proximity.
This was a pleasing concert. Conductor Nicholas McGegan has an excellent rapport with this orchestra, a capacity to shape defined, spontaneous-sounding performances. That quality was especially welcome in Nicholas Maw's Sonata for Strings and Two Horns, a well-crafted piece written in 1967 (when the composer was 32), but inclined to overwork its material. In this performance, its density was less obvious than the lively discourse between the players, including the always reliable horns, Paul Gardham and Andy Moxon.
Mendelssohn's early Sinfonia No 7 in D minor did not sound much like the work of a young sophisticate. Emphatic forward playing and rhythmic emphasis gave it the directness of a 14-year-old relishing his first pair of bovver boots. It was different, and convincing.
Nicholas McGegan's authority as a specialist in classical repertoire showed in a lively performance of Mozart's Divertimento in F. This music, which impeccably treads the boundary between high art and light entertainment, can be emasculated by pretty performance, but the ICO played it with just enough elegance (leavened by muscle) and with wit that didn't stray into flippancy.
