Music

Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Hazel Rowland

four stars

IT DID not take long for the Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra to transport their audience to the wild and windy Hebridean isle of Staffa during Sunday afternoon’s concert. Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) may open softly, but the Tonkunslter’s strings brimmed with underlying energy and mystery. Yet the highlight of the performance was the wistful clarinet solo from Chrisoph Moser, who was joined seamlessly by second clarinettist Stefan Vohla for an enchanting duet.

The orchestra continued to display their skill in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Although they reduced to the size of a chamber orchestra (as is fitting for the piece), they still filled the Usher Hall’s expansive space. Soloist Emma Johnson found projecting more difficult however, though this was offset by the sweetness of her playing. Particularly exquisite were her changes in dynamics, which not only produced a change in volume but an entirely different colour. Under their Music Director Yutaka Sado, the Tonkunstler were excellent accompanists, giving Johnson the courage to play extremely quietly without risking being drowned out. This made for a magical passage during the second movement, when both orchestra and soloist achieved an unbelievable delicacy.

The dramatic Symphony No. 1 in C minor by Brahms produced a drastic contrast. With the orchestra once again at their full force, Sado enticed a relentless drive for the first movement. But the greatest excitement was saved for the final movement, when Sado captured the slow introduction’s uneasy sense of foreboding. After the stately reference to the Ode to Joy theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Sado let his orchestra off the leash. Free to play at their full power, including the gorgeously bold brass, the concert ended in glorious triumph.