Four stars. "Twenty stars?" suggested an RSNO follower on Saturday night, with a dollop of mischief as we all bailed out, uniformly high as kites, I suspect, from the scorching performance of Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, the Inextinguishable, with which the RSNO had just concluded one of the most high-voltage, thrilling concerts the orchestra has given in given in many months.
And the reason for all this electricity? The programming had a lot to do with it: more of that in
a moment. But really, the sheer force and magnetism of the event boiled down to two words: John Storgards. The Finnish conductor is a familiar figure in Scotland, where he has conducted many concerts with the orchestras; but not with the RSNO.
His Glasgow debut on Saturday was a sensation. Storgards totally galvanised and ignited the RSNO in a grippingly-atmospheric and dramatic account of Sibelius's Nightride and Sunrise, where the chill, rustling pace of the gallop had the hair standing up on the back of my neck. What a masterpiece it is, and how rarely we hear it.
You couldn't really use the word "rare" about Grieg's Piano Concerto: its great tunes are never off the popular airwaves. But it's not so often in the concert hall now; so Christian Ihle Hadland's performance on Saturday night, one more of poetry and lyricism, rather than power, was beautiful to hear. But the wonder of the night was Storgard's Nielsen Four, elemental and convulsive music-making at its most potent, the RSNO firing on all cylinders, and this Finnish magician in charge of an orchestra that gave him everything in return, at white heat. Stunning.
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