United Kingdom Saariaho, Ravel, Mendelssohn: Denis Kozhukhin (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Simone Menezes (conductor). Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 14.5.2023. (SRT)
Saariaho – Lanterna magica
Ravel – Piano Concerto in G main
Mendelssohn – Symphony No.3 in A minor, ‘Scottish’
For apparent causes, all of Scotland’s orchestras must know their approach fairly comfortably round Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony. It is extra for his or her touring audiences than their home ones (there are solely so many occasions a Scottish viewers will put up with it in any given time span), however I nonetheless must admit that familiarity means I not often get excited after I see it on a live performance programme.
This efficiency was a cracker, although. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra made it sound prefer it was their in-house celebration piece, with terrific orchestral tone, marvellous sectional sounds, and a convincing general imaginative and prescient. The sluggish introduction was dusky and atmospheric, however there was an actual kick of power when the primary Allegro un poco agitato received going, and its tutti part was probably the most thrilling sound of this entire live performance. After a feather-light Vivace non troppo and a quietly poignant Adagio, the drama of the finale was led by a string part that was firing on all cylinders. The quintet of horns sounded excellent within the coda, however the general mix was terrific, and I’ll lengthy bear in mind the liquid great thing about the cello sound as the primary motion’s growth gave method to its recapitulation.
However, there was additionally a really clear sense of the place the music was going, and that was all the way down to the conductor Simone Menezes. She formed the music with an actual sense that she knew the place it was going, and he or she managed the general sound image with confidence and perception. She did her greatest to do the identical with Kaija Saariaho’s Lanterna magica, regardless of its often-forbidding soundscape. Saariaho’s piece was impressed the machines that produced the primary transferring photographs, and largely revolves round musical motives getting used at various speeds. In reality, there’s a sense of steadily constructing perpetuum cellular to the piece, like a rotating system build up velocity, and Saariaho makes use of the orchestra’s textures with exceptional inventiveness, together with varied tuned percussion and even, at one level, a rain stick. It is a slow-moving musical collage with chords that usually appear as if they’re melting on the web page in entrance of us, with even some eerie whispering from the orchestral musicians. It’s a tough piece to like, although, not least due to its doom-laden tone. It is impressed by Ingmar Bergman’s autobiography, however it looks like it’s written in dread somewhat than celebration. My expertise of Saariaho’s music is admittedly restricted, however hers not often strikes me as an upbeat musical world: it’s extra like there may be doom crouching across the nook and we have to watch out for its method. Nothing incorrect with that, per se, however it may be an exhausting emotional expertise to come across!
Ravel’s G main Piano Concerto is way more welcoming, then again. Menezes drew out the piece’s sharp edges within the glittering outer actions however discovered one thing extra long-breathed and relaxed for the heavenly sluggish motion. In that, pianist Denis Kozhukhin was additionally on nice kind. He is a semi-regular visitor with the BBC SSO, largely in additional gnarly repertoire than this, however he took to Ravel’s jazzy excessive jinks like a duck to water. He understood the playfulness of the outer actions, however he was by no means lower than utterly centered on what he was doing. At occasions it appeared, in truth, as if he was misplaced in his personal world of stillness whereas the orchestral sound swirled round him. He may conjure up some rhapsodic playfulness for the sooner sections, however he approached the Adagio assai with unashamed Romanticism, letting the sluggish motion play out like a blissful improvisation. The orchestral solos, by the best way, had been first price, with a beautiful horn within the Allegramente first motion and, after all, cor anglais within the second; however harpist Helen Thomson deserves a particular shout out for her first motion solo, which managed to mix pointillist precision with an impossibly easy legato.
The Glasgow efficiency is obtainable on BBC Sounds (click on right here) till tenth June.
Simon Thompson