Verdict: Three stars
Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
I don't need to be told what a fine orchestra the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra is. They may not forgive me for this, but I don't think they were at the top of their game with conductor Sian Edwards on Saturday night in the Usher Hall except in one vital respect, of which more in a moment.
It's never occurred to me before, but Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture is an in-at-the-deep-end piece.
There's no warm-up, no foreplay. You're up to your ears in the mess of love before you can suggest turning the lights down.
And the EYO performance had that "Hell's Bells; we're on stage already", feel about it. The music has a massive emotional impact, but this performance just felt like they weren't ready for it.
Now, there were splendid things in the EYO account of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, not least the haunting desolation of the abandoned, solitary cor anglais at its return in the slow movement, and the cackling winds in the finale.
But I felt that Sian Edwards suppressed the glorious madness of the symphony.
The heartbeat was slow: it should be racing. Pacing felt four-square, short on headiness in the opening movement, and three-square in the Waltz. The famous March to the Gallows lacked cymbal-power. The Fantastique should blow you away. My feathers were unruffled.
In the middle of this was a miracle in the performance by young Julian Scott of Richard Strauss's late-life Oboe Concerto, where Scott produced a masterpiece of subtlety, fluidity and sophistication, fuelled by some of the best oboe playing I have ever heard, and with EYO now at its most supple. Magical stuff.
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