FIVE stars is all we've got; so we would need to plunder the firmament to find an appropriate number of celestial bodies with which to bless one of the finest RSNO concerts I have heard in years, and celebrate the outstanding playing of the orchestra for its Danish principal guest conductor, Thomas Sondergard, on Saturday night.
Years ago a former RSNO chief executive, looking enviously over one shoulder at the work of Osmo Vanska and the BBC SSO, and nostalgically over the other at the work of Alexander Gibson and the SNO, said something memorable of the RSNO: "This orchestra needs a good Sibelius conductor."
Well, they've had a few en passant, of course. But now, after Saturday night, we can assert they have a great one. Sondergard produced a comprehensive study in intensity from the Second Symphony; a shattering account with quickish speeds, but with every rustle, nuance, surge and swell perfectly placed in a flawlessly accumulating and molten flow of music. I cannot tell you how many Sibelius Twos I have heard, but this one was one of the greatest.
The playing of the orchestra, led by Jim Clark, was of an intensity and concentration that were absolutely inescapable. But more: Sondergard is a superb accompanist, to judge from his exquisite responsiveness to Roderick Williams's moving and perceptive singing of Mahler's Wayfarer Songs; and a colourist, too, with his sure-footed direction of Tommy Andersson's glittering Garden Of Delights.
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