The Czech National Symphony Orchestra, heard at the National Concert Hall this week, is less than five years old. It's a product of the changed political climate in Eastern Europe, where many of the surviving state-funded institutions have had to tighten their belts and opportunities have opened up for independent bodies to enter what was once a closed field.
The orchestra gave its first concert under Vladimir Valek in 1993 has been working under the conductorship of Virginia-born American, Paul Freeman, since 1996. The playing showed many of the characteristics heard from visiting Czech orchestras in the past - forward-toned violins with woodwinds sounding comparatively recessed in balance, the horns revealing a touch of Slavonic wobble, and a brass section topped by bright, piercing trumpets. Not everything seemed to gel as solidly or with as much consistent refinement as in the last visits of the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Symphony Orchestras.
The programme offered in Dublin was all-Czech. Smetana's Bartered Bride Overture was given with more geniality than point (the woodwind playing here didn't sound particularly tight in ensemble) and Dvorak's Cello Concerto was delivered with conventional sweaty emotional heroics by Jiri Barta, a player with a muscular style who impressed most when his reserve was greatest.
Smetana's Vltava flowed agreeably and Dvorak's New World Symphony was at its most persuasive in the middle movements. However, the musical momentum gained in the Scherzo was dissipated by the conductor's overdone tempo changes in the finale, which disrupted the music's sense of organic continuity. After an already long programme, the audience insisted on no less than three encores, the most entertaining of which was a deliciously conceived pizzicato bon-bon by Leroy Anderson.
