Music

SCO

City Hall, Glasgow

Michael Tumelty

Five Stars

IN 33 years of reviewing classical concerts in this space, I do not recall a concert of precisely the same structure as that given by the SCO on Friday night with conductor Andrew Manze and pianist Francesco Piemontesi: two punchy, earthy Beethoven overtures, each followed by a Mozart piano concerto. And that was it. It was rather like being served the ultimate starter, followed by an exemplary, personal-choice main course, all prepared by a master chef with a kitchen full of individual authorities, all persuaded into collective and continuous collaboration: near-perfection on a plate. I’ll probably get a dozen e-mails citing structural precedents for the programme: no matter; what was done, and the way in which it was done, was exquisite, provocative, and memorable.

Manze, with unstoppable drive and energy, powered the SCO through incisive performances of Beethoven’s Coriolan and Prometheus Overtures with the SCO delivering the goods in clean, vibrato-free lines that took the breath away, while ensuring the mandatory bag of Beethovenian rivets gave the music teeth, bite, edge and rasp.

Francesco Piemontesi, in performances of wonderfully-unpretentious lucidity, brought the sheer symphonic weight of Mozart’s 25th Concerto in C major to the fore, though, refreshingly, not over-dominating the structure, while the relatively-lighter elements of the Coronation Concerto, especially in its moments of witty humour and perhaps mischievous playfulness, were transparent. He is an extraordinary musician, this young Italian: he seems to have the ability to communicate the music directly, as though it was an actual statement, while, at the same time, incorporating the infinite subtleties that lie within the score. And that is the art.