Donna Diana overture........................von Reznicek

Le rouet d'Omphale..........................Saint-Saens

Adagio with variations......................Respighi

Pezzo capriccioso...........................Tchaikovsky

Gayaneh suite (excs)........................Khatchaturian THIS year's series of Tuesday lunchtime orchestral concerts at the National Concert Hall started this week. The National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colman Pearce, played music written between the 1870s and the 1940s, none of it substantial, but some of it pleasantly diverting.

A highlight was Arun Rao's playing of the solo cello part in Respighi's Adagio with Variations and Tchaikovsky's Pezzo capriccioso. Both pieces thrive on good tone and ample melodic shape.

Rao delivered the goods handsomely in these areas and, even though his playing did not have that massively assured projection which keeps you on the edge of your seat, his un-histrionic and purely musical style was wholesome and rewarding.

Colman Pearce led the orchestral accompanying in a rather dead-pan, follow-along way, but produced better results in the three orchestral items. Von Reznicek's Donna Diana overture and Saint-Saens's Le rouet d'Omphale had immediacy, though the Saint-Saens in particular was short on long-range shape.

The most gripping performances came in three pieces from Khatchaturian's Gayaneh suite. This composer's stratified textures were, on the whole, clearly delineated; and there was plenty of rhythmic drive, especially in the "Lesghinka", which featured some scintillating percussion playing.