Donald Runnicles says he always seeks out chances to "come down" from the podium and make music with the people he conducts.
This was one such occasion: an afternoon chamber concert in which Runnicles took to the piano alongside string players from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. There can't be much time to practise scales and arpeggios while flitting about the world's opera houses, and in in Schumann's Second Piano Trio Runnicles mostly deferred to the ardent leadership of violinist Greg Lawson and cellist Martin Storey. Still, the ethos was exactly right and refreshingly unprecious: just get up and do it.
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