St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra in concert

By TARA WERNER

The visual ambience in St Matthew-in-the-City may be lovely, but the muddy acoustics can disguise numerous problems.

For many musicians it must be akin to playing in an oversized bathtub, where the sound totally washes over everyone, often hiding inaccurate intonation.

That proved to be the case in this concert on Sunday afternoon, and even having a pianist of the calibre of Tamas Vesmas as soloist and conductor did not dispel the impression that the St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra continues to try to make up with enthusiasm what it lacks in finesse.

This was most clearly highlighted in the opening work, Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers, which received an extrovert if not entirely accurate performance.

Sadly, suspect intonation was the hallmark of the entire programme.

Most doubtful were the horn and wind sections, which suffered badly in Ravel's Pavane Pour une Infante Defunte.

The opening horn solo is always difficult in this miniature masterpiece, but that was no excuse for badly out-of-tune passages.

The woodwind took some time to settle as well, with Ravel's beautiful writing given decidedly off-centre attention.

Vesmas may be an excellent pianist, but his low-key conducting did not instil much discipline during this concert.

Nonetheless, he provided an energetic interpretation of Mendelssohn's youthful Piano Concerto in G minor, and recovered from a memory lapse to finish the concerto in flamboyant style.

The Mozart "mini-concerto" - the rondo for piano and orchestra K382 - gave both orchestra and soloist plenty to do.

But this deceptively simple work sounded slightly disjointed, with Vesmas and strings uncoordinated in a number of the sections of varying tempo.

In comparison, the composer's Prague Symphony No 38, despite a rather insecure start, received the most synchronised and accurate playing of the concert.