The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dukas

Violin Concerto - Tchaikovsky

Symphonie fantastique - Berlioz

Would Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice have been possible without Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique? They are both brilliant pieces of orchestral writing which paint a vivid picture (with or without the help of animated cartoons), but they depend on accurate detailing and a sense of drama to achieve their full effect. These qualities were slow to arrive in this concert, the first of the Ulster Orchestra's 1999-2000 subscription series.

The first two movements of the symphony were hurried and surprisingly muffled in effect, but the slow movement was spell-binding; there was some beautiful playing here, and one felt Sitkovetsky was at last entering into the spirit of the music. There were exciting moments in the final Witches' Sabbath, but the Hungarian March played as an encore suffered from the odd flatness which pervaded so much of this concert.

Technically speaking, Shlomo Mintz is a remarkable player, with a big tone and a crisp flying staccato which was demonstrated to brilliant effect in the concerto's finale. The soulful Canzona was rapt and inward, but on the bottom string the tone became forced and uningratiating where it should have been rich and warm, and there was too much of the impact of bow on string. Nevertheless the performance was free of mannerism and the accompaniment well detailed.