Robert Houlihan Conducts

dublin | arts and media | opinion/analysis Saturday October 11, 2003 14:12 by Sean Crudden sean.crudden at iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 042 93 71310

Kerryman the Key Figure in The National Concert Hall on Friday Night.

An almost full house in The National Concert Hall heard an ambitious and very satisfying program of music last night (10 October 2003).

A quite full attendance at The National Concert Hall last night heard and excellent program of music from the National Symphony Orchestra under conductor Robert Houlihan. The first half of the concert included two pieces by Berlioz - Overture Le Corsaire and Love Scene from Romeo et Juliette followed by Bruch's Violin Concerto in which Catherine Leonard was the soloist.

There was a fine range of sound from the orchestra in the overture, the second piece was quieter and more romantic. Catherine Leonard looked fantastic in the concerto. She showed excellent attack and her phraseology seemed (to this inexpert observer) to be spot-on. The orchestra gave steady support and while it was nicely assertive where required it did not steal the lime-light from the soloist. Catherine seemed to be diffident about accepting applause at the end - maybe she did not realise how much the audience liked her?

The second half of the concert consisted of the "tractor" music of tanks on the move and twentieth century aggression i.e. Prokofiev's 2nd
Symphony (particularly the first movement). Robert Houlihan and the orchestra seemed to be completely at home in this performance and lashed out the sound with good progression and point. Houlihan does not get in the way like some conductors do and seems to have a happy knack of drawing the audience's attention to the orchestra and the music. He also seems to be in close contact with the players and not operating from a great height or from a long distance away from his charges as some other conductors seem to. His attitude is taciturn and he shows determination and his body language conveys confidence and a can-be-done attitude. He gave the thumbs up to some of the players at the end and he seemed to be happy with how things went on the night.

As I said at the start this was, in my humble opinion, an ambitious and excellent piece of programming. Therefore it seems to me to be a pity if it cannot be heard sometime soon again.