Music

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Keith Bruce, three stars

WITH its second double cancellation of the season, losing both conductor Robin Ticciati, still recovering from his back problems, and soloist Sir Andras Schiff, the SCO’s conductor emeritus Joseph Swensen was back on the podium sooner than planned and young Czech Lukas Vondracek had been identified as one of the few pianists with Dvorak’s concerto – much less often heard than those he wrote for violin and cello – in his repertoire.

We will never know what narrative Ticciati had in mind that would have taken the concert from Bach through the Dvorak to Brahms Third Symphony, but under the new team the programme was all about the relationship between Dvorak and the German composer who championed him.

Swensen choose to begin with Dvorak’s orchestral arrangements of three of Brahms Hungarian Dances, the piano works that were his equivalent of a Christmas chart-topper, early works the income from which underwrote the rest of his career.

Vondracek, sporting the hipster beard of his generation, added a Brahms Intermezzo to the mix by way of a gem of an encore. He adopts a Terry Gilliam cartoon posture over the keyboard which contrasts with the fluency and delicacy of his playing – and the Dvorak concerto has a fine champion in his command of the work, apparent well before the first movement cadenza. Its relative rarity is something of a mystery really; not only does it feature some challenging writing for the soloist, but lovely little cameos from horn, clarinet, flute and oboe all pave the way for his first entrance, while the dance feel of the finale follows a gentle Romantic middle movement.

It was certainly the work for which this concert will be remembered, because there was something a bit rough and ready about Swensen’s account of Brahms Three, certainly his most popular symphony. The horns and brass tended to overpower the sweeping strings both at the famous opening and in the finale, and there was a ragged feel to phrasing throughout that was not characteristic of the SCO.

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