Music

RSNO

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Keith Bruce

four stars

I am not a fan of the lush orchestration of Webern’s Langsamer Satz, which lacks the passionate edge of the string quartet original. But its place at the opening of the RSNO’s Saturday concert, which conductor Peter Oundjian dedicated to the people of Paris, asking the audience to withhold their applause for moments of contemplative silence at its end, was most moving, the work’s wistful Romanticism appropriately elegiac for all those killed.

The tribute did perhaps trip up the start of the central work in the programme, however, with an angular awkwardness to the opening of Brahms’ Violin Concerto from Oundjian and the orchestra. It was a performance saved when Norwegian Vilde Frang imposed her personality of the piece. Although the principle oboe has the tune in the central slow movement, this is still a concerto that is all about the soloist, and Frang’s rich and powerful tone dominated proceedings, including a kaleidoscopic account of the first movement cadenza. The orchestra has more of a kick at the ball in the finale, but it was still her fiery gypsy fiddle playing that shone brightest.

The second half Mozart symphony began in an altogether more sprightly fashion. To many ears, the RSNO may not be the best orchestra in Scotland for this repertoire, but if there is one Mozart symphony that benefits from the heft a bigger (although still reduced) band brings, it is his last, the Jupiter. The playing was still light on its feet with great dynamic variation, string section principals leading by example and the winds on top form, flautist Katherine Bryan surely challenging the composer’s alleged antipathy to her instrument.