Music

RSNO

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Keith Bruce, four stars

THIRTY years ago, when the RSNO recorded all the Tone Poems of Richard Strauss under Neemi Jarvi for Chandos, the pop charts included the passing phenomenon of the mega-mix, but that bundling together of hit themes in one package had already been explored by the composer at the climax of the last of those works, Ein Heldenleben, in which he refers to all those that he’d previously written.

Whether you regard the piece as a sincere self-portrait or the product of a monstrous ego, it is an opportunity to hear a huge orchestra at full-stretch that should not be missed and deserved fewer empty seats in the auditorium that there were on Saturday. Indeed, as well as the joy of its scale – off-stage brass, a brace of harps and tenor tuba shadowing its big brother and all – there are delights in its details. Here was a rare chance to hear orchestra leader Maya Iwabuchi on absolutely stunning solo form that was well worth the ticket price alone.

The work is also being recorded for a new disc, which is an important statement of intent from incoming music director Thomas Sondergard about the major works he intends to tackle. As was his mode of address to the audience at the start of the concert; both his predecessors at the head of the RSNO have been good communicators but I fancy that there will be something more personal about the rapport Sondergard seeks to establish with concertgoers.

He was introducing South Korean soloist Sunwook Kim, who gave a beautifully nuanced account of the Piano Concerti No 2 of Johannes Brahms, a work surely no less personal than the Strauss. An extended love letter to Clara Schumann, at least in its central movements, principal cello Aleksei Kiseliov took his chance to demonstrate exquisite solo playing.