MUSIC REVIEW: Cork Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

May 12 2008 by Glyn Mon Hughes, Liverpool Daily Post

IT MUST have been something of an emotional homecoming for Keith Pascoe, who brought the Cork Symphony Orchestra to perform at Philharmonic Hall this weekend.

This mostly amateur outfit, with a smattering of professional players, chose a demanding programme as well yet another world premiere – almost something Liverpool audiences expect as the norm these days.

That premiere by composer David Wallace was something of a disappointment, though. Called a romance for violin and orchestra, it was a musical depiction of the Irish legend entitled The Song of Caer. The piece evidently owed a great deal to Vaughan Williams – indeed, it was specifically commissioned with the same orchestration as The Lark Ascending in mind. The problem was that it sounded rather too like the VW piece.

The work never got worked up, rarely progressing beyond a slow pianissimo. And while there seemed to be an attempt to include folk song in the piece, the traditional aspects sounded more English than Irish. For the performance, Pascoe swapped roles, and played the solo violin while the composer conducted.

A pleasant experience but hardly one which could claim to excite the audience.

The concert opened with Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute. Pascoe opened this deliberately slowly and then launched into a furiously fast passage. While this was a little scrappy at the outset, it improved into a polished performance.

Pascoe himself was soloist and director in Mozart’s fourth Violin Concerto. The opening movement was bright and lively while the slow movement was pleasantly laid back. The graceful finale brought the proceedings to an end, but it would be churlish not to mention the splendid cadenzas in each movement written by Pascoe.

A much reduced Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir joined the orchestra for Vaughan Williams’ inimitable Serenade to Music. As usual, they were excellently disciplined, though the men sounded weak in the central part of the work.

Ciara Moroney was soloist in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. The opening was slow, almost painfully so, with the orchestra occasionally having trouble with playing together. Again an overly deliberate slow movement led into a rapid and almost hasty finale. Moroney felt somewhat uninspiring in the first movement, but soon settled in to give a polished performance.