Variety helps create a nice balance

Douglas Boyd, conductor Emma McGrath, violin Federation Concert Hall, Hobart October 5

THIS was a program that looked a little odd on paper. The first half was classical (Haydn and Mozart), the second a mix of the Late Romantic Eric Wolfgang Korngold and a Brahms overture.

In practice it worked out just fine, the diversity affording a satisfyingly balanced program.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Mourning was presented by conductor Douglas Boyd and the TSO with careful shaping of phrase and attention to dynamic nuance that brought great clarity of texture.

With Wilma Smith taking over as guest concertmaster, Emma McGrath was soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, K216. Her performance was full of tonal beauty, style, and impish good humour, the Sam Franko cadenzas superbly played. I personally love the Romanticism of Korngold’s music, but he divides listeners. Some find his oldfashioned “Hollywood film score’’ style (a genre he virtually invented) mushy. There is a playfulness, lush melodiousness and brilliant orchestration to his early incidental score for a stage production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing (Opus 11) that was well projected by orchestra and conductor.

Finally, a fine, dramatic performance of Brahms’ Tragic Overture, Opus 81 was followed by an encore: the composer’s Hungarian Dances No.5.