Prince Igor Overture - Borodin
Piano Concerto No 2 Rachmaninov Sheherazade - Rimsky-Korsakov
The National Youth Orchestra has done surprisingly little over the years to provide a platform for young Irish soloists; it's been well outshone in this regard by its junior sibling. So it was good to find Finghin Collins playing with the orchestra at the National Concert Hall on Saturday. His appearance on the NYO's January tour was his first major concerto outing at home since his success at the Clara Haskil Competition last year, and the tour took both orchestra and soloist to Symphony Hall in Birmingham on Sunday. Collins's approach to Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto was not of the soulful variety. Rather it was one of brightly-lit, virtuosic exuberance. He devoured with relish all but a handful of the piece's technical challenges, and managed to turn much of the finale into a real tour-de-force.
The Chinese conductor En Shao, one-time principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, showed again what disciplined and committed playing he's capable of inspiring from the NYO. With Sarah Sexton as leader, the strings showed real lustre and worked as a unified body. The woodwind players were generally impressive as soloists (though much less so as a section), and there was a fine display of musical sensitivity and confidence from the first horn.
The limitations of Shao's approach were musical. He exercises control in a way that constitutes a form of straitjacketing. His style of shaping is one which, rather than sounding natural or organic, gives a sense of being imposed on the music. Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade, in particular, needs to breathe more freely than Shao seemed willing to allow. Within the musical bounds delineated by the conductor, and with the clear benefit of his consistently commanding presence, the NYO sounded frequently to be on the top of its form.
