{TABLE} Symphony in D Op 15 No 4 ................. J.C. Bach Piano Concerto in A K488 ................. Mozart Piano Concerto in E flat K482 ............ Mozart {/TABLE} HUGH TINNEY launched his cycle of the Mozart piano concertos, a three year undertaking planned in three concert instalments, at the National Concert Hall last's week. His musical partners in the venture are the Orchestra of St Cecilia and the conductor for the concerts is the director of the Cork School of Music, Geoffrey Spratt.

The piano chosen for the series is not a Steinway (although the NCH is home to two), but a concert grand from the Czech firm of Petrof. These instruments eschew the easy brilliance of Steinways in favour of a softer articulation and mellower tone, qualities well in keeping with the finely proportioned scaling, tonal refinement and expressive poise which characterise Hugh Tinney's view of Mozart.

Tinney's is a Mozart distilled to essentials, a Mozart where a sense of grace in performance is never sacrificed to personal interpretative whim. It's also, though, a Mozart of give and take. Tinney yields willingly to his colleagues in the orchestra when the music demands it, rather than resorting to the route of demonstrative showmanship.

This aspect of his playing brought both gains and losses, last week, the latter because of the insensitivity of conductor Spratt to commonsensical issues of balance, not only between soloist and orchestra, but within the orchestra itself.

Spratt's strongest point, is the sharpness of articulation he secures from his players. But he seems to have had his head turned, as it were, by the glories of Mozart's wind writing. I'm all in favour of forward wind balances in Mozart, but not when the effect is achieved by the crude measure of playing that's simply too loud. It was in the brio of the two finales that the greatest sense of shared purpose was achieved.

Tighter discipline in intonation, and ensemble and a reining in of the overloud double bass, will, also be required in this series if the orchestra is to match with consistency the assured musical equilibrium which made Hugh. Tinney's playing in this first instalment so rewarding.