Music

Czech National Symphony Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Keith Bruce, three stars

EVEN if the tour had gone smoothly, the latest international orchestral offering in the Usher Hall’s Sunday series would still have been bringing a programme that has been well-covered by Scotland’s indigenous orchestras this season. As it was, the Czechs arrived in Edinburgh trailing less than enthusiastic London reviews and substitute conductor Ben Palmer on the podium, whose usual role is directing their film score concerts rather than mainstream repertoire. (The orchestra returns to the same venue with Jurassic Park, which might attract a rather different audience.) Although there was a nice rich tone from the lower strings and fine wind playing in Schubert’s Unfinished, some of Palmer’s tempi were odd, and second movement certainly slow.

Come Dvorak’s 7th Symphony – core repertoire for these players – it was the dynamics that were awry with an eccentrically-attired first horn leading, by example, a section that was consistently over-loud, and seemingly encouraged in that by the conductor.

Step forward soloist Pavel Kolesnikov, still not 30 and a former BBC New Generation Artist, to save the afternoon. His reading of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 had all the sensitivity lacking elsewhere – even recalling Uchida playing Mozart at points – and spades of intensity and expressiveness alongside. The transition from the fireworks of the first movement cadenza to the yearning tune at the start of the Andante ensured that no ears strayed from focus on the soloist and he alone for the rest of the piece. He not only made the demanding work look a mere bagatelle technically but also expressed every nuance of one of the composer’s most delicate works. An encore of Chopin, of whose music he has made an award-winning recording, was the icing on the cake.