Music
RSNO
Keith Bruce
four stars
A RARITY like Richard Strauss’s Burleske for Piano and Orchestra sits easily in the repertoire of adventurous pianist Kirill Gerstein, who has straddled the spheres of jazz and classical music and whose latest Gershwin-and-associates recording includes appearances by vibraphonist Gary Burton and sometime Pink Martini vocalist Storm Large. While there is plenty for the soloist to remember and exploit in this early work, the scoring for the orchestra is noticeably spare from a young composer. The piano’s main conversation is with the timpanist who opens the music, and that began a whole evening in which the RSNO’s newest recruit, Paul Philbert, was never long out of the spotlight.
If Burleske is also very tuneful – did I hear the germ of the opening of Bernstein’s Somewhere from West Side Story in there? – it contrasted with his suite from Der Rosenkavalier in that the 80-year-old Strauss throws everything into the mix from the start. Derived from the opera to usurp less sensitive concert sequences of the music it may have been, but its careful construction makes it kin to the composer’s tone poems. The big stuff was great, but conductor Thomas Sondergard also brought a lovely delicacy to the dynamics of the waltzes.
Philbert was also to the fore at the start of the First Symphony of Johannes Brahms, in a performance that also include some beautiful solo playing by the orchestra’s recently appointed co-leader Sharon Roffmann in the slow second movement and guest principal clarinet Maura Marinucci in the third. Having been immersed in Robin Ticciati’s new recording of the Brahms Symphonies with the SCO recently, understandably the RSNO’s fuller sound seemed more ponderous in the opening movement. In fact Sondergard dispatched the entire work in almost exactly the same time frame, and there was certainly no lingering over the glorious theme of the finale when it swept into the strings.
ends
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here