RDS Concert Hall, Dublin

Jörg Widmann– 'Insel der Sirenen', 'Fantasie'. Mozart– Clarinet Concerto Mendelssohn– Symphony No 1

This showed both the Irish Chamber Orchestra and its new principal guest conductor Jörg Widmann from a variety of perspectives.

How about this? The ICO as conductorless ensemble. Although composer and clarinettist Widmann would later conduct Mendelssohn’s First Symphony, in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto he was confined to the role of soloist. There was some discreet direction from leader Katherine Hunka, but otherwise the band looked after balance, phrasing and dynamics. They can do it because their numbers are small compared to a symphony orchestra’s, and they configure their seating to maximise visual communication. And they’re really good.

How about conductor as solo performer of his own composition? Widmann played his 1993 Fantasie for solo clarinet. Eight minutes long, it’s full of animation, high spirits, contrasts and wit, as well as being a jaw-dropping vehicle for virtuosic display.

Tellingly, the audience, which had clearly loved the tight, expressive performance of the Mozart classic, responded with no less enthusiasm to the unapologetic contemporary sound-world of Widmann’s piece.

There was also – in two pieces – the conventional arrangement of conductor and orchestra. Ironically, Widmann was less convincing directing his own piece, Insel der Sirenen (Island of Sirens), not quite sustaining forward motion in the build-up to the high-point.

But he more than made up for it by closing the concert with an electrifying account of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 1, written when the composer was still just 15.

It is precociously masterful in technique but youthful in its energy and pace, qualities Widmann channelled to fire his players.