Orchestra dazzles Rollins

Camerata Ireland’s chamber orchestra, at Rollins on Sunday, March 13, provided what was perhaps the public’s favorite concert in recent times, a respite of welcome world-class orchestral playing to herald the approaching spring.

On a program that featured music of the Classical period, the afternoon began with Rossini’s “La scala di seta” overture in a lively treatment that immediately displayed the impressive precision of the orchestra’s unison string playing.

Then we were treated to the singing of handsome lirico-spinto soprano Celine Byrne, whose dark-voweled voice production is warm and expressive, with bounteous volume and the ability to shade down to beguiling pianissimo. With her slender good looks and reserve dramatic power, Byrne must be a striking Tosca. The soprano sang two Mozart arias: “Porgi amour” from “The Marriage of Figaro,” and “L’amero, saro constante” from “The Shepherd King.”

Two nocturnes by Ireland’s Classical composer, John Field, were pleasant enough, providing merely an interlude prior to first-team Mozart’s “23rd Piano Concerto in A Major” performed by conductor/pianist Barry Douglas.

Douglas founded this all-Irish musical group in 1999.

In 1995, my beloved wife and I brought Mr. Douglas to the Bob Carr stage with the Moscow Philharmonic on our Festival of Orchestras series. That evening, Douglas played Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto #1” — the same piece, orchestra and conductor with which he had won first prize in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.

Douglas’ honest and charming pianistic style was perfectly fitted to the requisites of the classical job at hand. His tempi were energetically brisk, adding exciting bravura.

After intermission, we heard five short Druid Dances by Ireland’s Edward Bunting. (A possible requirement of the North Ireland government?)

American Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” followed in a subdued, lush interpretation.

Mozart’s “40th Symphony” (the g minor) closed the program with, I thought, hints of weariness, perhaps expectable in these players who had performed in Chicago the night before.