Performer: Gilbert Varga

A Mozart symphony in the second half of this Houston Symphony concert could hardly compete with Augustin Hadelich playing Bartók. 

The RSNO, with Gilbert Varga and Daniel Müller-Schott, paint a quintessentially French picture. Would it have been welcome at the Salon?

In an engaging German-Scots accent, RSNO first violinist Ursula Heidecker Allen promised the pre-concert talk audience an evening of sunny Mediterranean moods. Time being a factor in these very worthwhile 25-minute, capacity-crowd events, she addressed only the programme’s two Respighi pieces, mentioning that he was a pupil of another programmed composer, Martucci.

The central Austro-German repertoire in this excellently conceived programme was flanked by two Hungarian works from the pen of archivist, educator and composer, Zoltán Kodály. A seamless suite of five deftly orchestrated, and increasingly animated movements, Dances of Galánta (1933) draws on memories of Kodály's happy childhood in the titular market town.