{TABLE} Russlan and Ludmilla Overture. Glinka Khovanshchina Prelude ......................................... Mussorgsky Piano Concerto .......................... Rimsky-Korsakov Symphony No3 ............................ Borodin Waltz and Polonaise (Eugene Onegin)...... Tchaikovsky {/TABLE} THIS YEAR'S series of lunchtime orchestral concerts at the National Concert Hall got off to a good start on Tuesday of last week when Geoffrey Spratt conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a programme of late 19th century Russian music. They included one real rarity, Rimsky Korsakov's Piano Concerto, in which the soloist was Owen Lorigan.

This 15 minute piece is based on one folk song melody and can be counted as evidence in favour of Constant, Lambert's dictum that the problem with folk song in symphonic music is that all you can do is play the melody again, and louder. However, Rimsky Korsakov was a superb orchestrator, and, in dealing with his range of colour, both Lorigan and the NSO were effective, despite the occasional scramble in the solo part.

Geoffrey Spratt's conducting produced precision, rhythmic energy and plenty of melodic shaping no small merit in music which lives on melodic shape. In Glinka's overture Russlan and Ludmilla, and in Mussorgsky's Kliovanshchina Prelude, the result had spontaneity, plus a pleasing sense of motion throughout music which can seem very episodic.

One limitation was an abiding inclination to shape things by the moment. It was consistent with this tendency that Borodin's Symphony No. 3 made up largely of varied repetitions of short, folk song fragments received an especially well rounded performance.