Music
BBC SSO/Dausgaard, City Hall, Glasgow
Michael Tumelty
Three Stars
GLASGOW on Thursday night was heaving, with 52,000 at Hampden, 12,000 at One Direction, another few thousand at UB 40, and a more modest 1000-ish in the City Hall to catch a glimpse and a flavour of Thomas Dausgaard, who will be the new chief conductor of the BBC SSO. And it was a very useful glimpse, too. As he’d revealed on an earlier visit, Dausgaard is a good speaker. He eschewed the big presentation, a public interview, or even a formal introduction. He just came into a busy Recital Room, sat down, introduced himself and started talking quietly about the immediacy and elusiveness of Sibelius’ music, about its rhythms: "Do you tap your feet or get up to dance?” And about those elusive qualities: “The Sixth Symphony has begun way before it starts.” He’s worth listening to.
In concert, he conducted the last three symphonies, five to seven. The opening of the Fifth Symphony, the most popular of all, was a little scrappy. Entries were staggered and a bit splodgy. With respect, it’s got to be tighter, more precise and immediately-directional. And, from the outset, it lacked that seismic feel which permeates the symphony, climactically cracking the ground and letting the music boil over at its peak. It was a weak Sibelius Five.
Six was better, with Dausgaard prepared to give the music its head, acknowledging it was Sibelius light years from convention and confronting silence; while in Seven, at last, we heard Dausgaard’s hold on the heart-thumping intensity which so characterises and saturates this unremittingly-great symphony. We have a way to go here, methinks.
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