Last Tuesday's NSO lunchtime concert featured a well-devised programme dominated by Russian music. It began with the one non-Russian work on the programme, the brass fanfare from Dukas's ballet La Peri; then there were two pieces from IppolitovIvanov's Caucasian Sketches. After that came music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian.

Owen Lorigan was the soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 - the composer completed only one movement. The music offers temptations to milk expression and Lorigan's refusal to respond typified a performance which was well-judged for his abilities as well as for the music. He was sometimes put under pressure by the solo part's extravagant technical display, but tone was always good. Most of the time, co-ordination between soloist, conductor and orchestra was reliable, although the solo part was sometimes swamped by the orchestra.

Throughout the programme, conductor and orchestra were alert to the strongly-coloured orchestration of these Russian composers. However, characterisation of this music depends also on rhythm. Two of the four movements selected from Khachaturian's Masquerade Suite epitomised a persistent rhythmic limitation. The Waltz and the Mazurka are in similarly paced, but differently accented, types of triple time. Both pieces moved sturdily, but their rhythmic styles were essentially the same.