It was Sunday afternoon at Kleinhans Music Hall, two days before St. Patrick’s Day, and nary an Irish tune was to be heard as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra played host to “From the Top,” a radio show that showcases talented young classical musicians.

As this particular performance is being broadcast at a later date (Saturday, April 18, at 9 a. m. on WNED-FM 94.5), the dearth of material celebrating the Emerald Isle and its culture was totally understandable.

This was the second time the BPO performed as an integral part of the show and, considering that this long-running program has utilized the services of a full orchestra only four times in its history, that is quite a compliment to the orchestra and its leader, JoAnn Falletta.

Still, the program’s focus is on musicians who haven’t yet hit the age of majority, and who display an at-times fearsome grasp of how to play their instruments.

Christopher O’Riley, the show’s host and a concert pianist in his own right, wove interviews with the performers into the fabric of the musical program, drawing personal vignettes from the musicians before and after they played movements drawn from familiar material by Mendelssohn, Mozart and Vivaldi. His easy conversational style did a lot to ease whatever tension his young interviewees might have felt once they realized that there was this huge band of older, more seasoned musicians backing them up.

William Hagen, a 16-yearold violinist, wove his way through the finale of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto with apparent ease, lacking only the tonal heft that will surely come to him as he continues to grow as a musician.

The 18-year-old violist Matthew Vera performed in tandem with the orchestra’s concertmaster Michael Ludwig in the Presto from Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Falletta played guitar alongside 16-yearold guitarist Chaconne Klaverenga in the Allegro from an arrangement of Vivaldi’s Concerto in F major for Two Mandolins and Orchestra.

Since Vera had already met Falletta and Ludwig at Interlochen Arts Camp, a comfort zone between novice and master had been established and it showed. Falletta also worked well with Klaverenga in their showpiece.

Also on the program were the talented young singers from Buffalo’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral Choir, who sang John Scott’s arrangement of the Baptist hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing,” using Pete Seeger’s lyrics instead of the ones originally crafted by the song’s composer, Robert Lowry.

O’Riley gave a solid performance of the Presto movement from Ravel’s piano concerto while Tom Vignieri, the program’s music producer, had his gracefully paced “An American Hymn” played by the orchestra.

The BPO opened the concert with Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” and closed out the show with Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” two well-played pieces that perfectly fit their position on the program.

Concert Review

“From the Top”

With the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and host Christopher O’Riley on Sunday in Kleinhans Music Hall.