Horn Concerto No 2 - Haydn

Eine kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart

Adagio - Barber

Serenade for strings - Tchaikovsky

This year's Summer Sounds series from the Orchestra of St Cecilia consists of three concerts at St Ann's Dawson Street. The conductor for last night's opening programme was Fergus O'Carroll, co-principal horn with the National Symphony Orchestra, who also appeared as soloist in the opening concerto by Haydn.

His playing was careful, tonally rounded and full, but lacking in drive, and the orchestral contribution was of a style to match.

Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is an evergreen in which it's easy to please and difficult to excel. O'Carroll directed a performance that was amiable, far from tight and without sparkle or shine.

The soft playing in Barber's Adagio was nicely coloured and textured, but the melodic lines lacked any real singing quality and there was little sense of the breathing or flexion that are necessary to show this music in its true light.

Tchaikovsky's Serenade for strings was driven with a rough vitality, moments of climax were not always carefully judged, and the balances secured by the conductor did not always place the instrumental line granted the loudest dynamic marking in the forefront of the sound-picture.

The stiffness that was found earlier in the Barber was here reflected in the angular rubato of the Waltz and while there was a stronger sense of energy, the ensemble playing never really gelled well and the overall shaping remained generalised rather than sharply focused.