Descharmes, NYOI Symphony Orchestra/ Mangou

NCH, Dublin

Berlioz - Le Corsaire Overture.

Mozart - Piano Concerto in E flat K271.

Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra.

THE NATIONAL Youth Orchestra of Ireland Symphony Orchestra continues to weather storms, not all of them of its own making. Most recently, the orchestra has suffered the loss of its long-term sponsor, Toyota Ireland, at a time when finding a new sponsor may be even less easy than getting a loan from your once-friendly bank manager.

The troubles seem not to have had an impact on the orchestra's spirit, however, and its new year programme showed bravery of the first order.

The evening opened with Berlioz's overture, Le Corsaire, a flamboyantly virtuosic piece which demands a kind of military precision to keep its potential instabilities in check, and ended with Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, a work which makes a point of soloistic demands, even on instruments that normally have a quiet life.

In between, the orchestra partnered Romain Descharmes, winner of the 2006 Axa Dublin International Piano Competition, in a concerto by Mozart, a composer who allows little or no hiding.

In the event, the performances under French conductor Christophe Mangou did rather give the impression that too much may have been taken on. Parts of the Berlioz overture creaked threateningly, in spite of the fact that the strings raced through some of the more dangerous passages with impressive sweep.

The reduced orchestra that remained on stage for the Mozart produced sounds of far greater refinement, with Descharmes taking an approach that was mostly contained and balanced. He let his hair down in the cadenzas and in a racy delivery of the Presto sections of the finale.

He was at his best, however, when the music was calmer and he allowed himself more flexibility in probing for expressive riches.

The orchestra's musical responses were most consistently on target in the Bartók concerto, even if the delivery revealed lots of unevenness. There was much characterful playing from the wind section, for instance, but some strangely unsettled big moments from the violas.

In the bigger picture, though, Mangou and his players gave the impression of knowing not only how they wanted the piece to go but also how to get that vision across in spite of some of the infelicities of the moment. The audience's roars of approval attested to their success.

Goell, Bloomer

NCH John Field Room, Dublin

Clara Schumann- A Life in Song.

Clara Schumann (1819-96) was acknowledged in her lifetime as one of the greatest pianists of the age. In her youth, she also composed.

However, after her marriage to a far greater composer, Robert Schumann, she concentrated on performance, often using her pianistic skills to support the family when her husband struggled to earn money as a composer.

In the 20th century, Clara was remembered not just as a pianist of importance, but also for the early difficulties of her relationship with Robert (she was his junior by nine years), which the couple pursued even in the teeth of legal opposition from her domineering father, Friedrich Wieck. After Robert's early death, there was the whiff of romance with a much younger composer, Johannes Brahms, for whom she also became an important and lifelong artistic confidante.

The mix was colourful enough to have inspired Hollywood treatments involving the likes of Katherine Hepburn and Natassja Kinski.

More recently, however, Clara's own music has been getting increasing attention, both in concert and on disc. To the flow of recordings, Omagh-based soprano Elisabeth Goell, with pianist Lauretta Bloomer, has added a complete survey of the songs and the duo are also touring them in concert.

They are using a mid-19th- century piano made by Clara's cousin, Wilhelm Wieck. In the mid-19th century, the piano made its way to Co Donegal, where family lore has it that the instrument was purchased from Clara Schumann. Although no documentation has survived to verify the instrument's provenance, it is now being described, without qualification, as Clara Schumann's piano.

On either of the occasions that I've heard it in concert, this Wieck piano has not been what you would call a good-sounding instrument. There's a softness of attack, especially in the upper range, that amounts to a lack of definition. Simply put, the sound is just too woolly and well removed in character from the leading instruments of its time.

In the John Field Room, Lauretta Bloomer certainly managed to ensure that it balanced effortlessly against Elisabeth Goell's light soprano, but there was a lack of expressive variety from both performers that served to drag the music down.

Goell's delivery was rather shapeless and sometimes more effortful than the music itself seemed to warrant.

There aren't many composers whose songs warrant the unrelenting exposure of a full concert that contains nothing else.

Few of even Clara Schumann's most ardent admirers would put her in that category.

Sadly, in the end, this concert's advocacy did the music no real favours. A handful of her best songs, preferably in more responsive performances, would show her not insignificant compositional skills in a much better light.