If you didn�t know that David Danzmayr, the RSNO�s young Austrian assistant conductor, was eager and up for it, then the way he tore through the Fledermaus Overture at the start of the orchestra�s Viennese Gala concert on Saturday night should have alerted you to the fact.

Music

Viennese Gala,
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
***

If you didn't know that David Danzmayr, the RSNO's young Austrian assistant conductor, was eager and up for it, then the way he tore through the Fledermaus Overture at the start of the orchestra's Viennese Gala concert on Saturday night should have alerted you to the fact.

His programme, while containing the usual Viennese suspects - the Emperor and Blue Danube Waltzes, the Pizzicato and Annen Polkas, along with the mandatory confection of vocal items from soprano Claire Rutter - included some less familiar numbers. Of these, the lovely Carlotta Waltz, the full-pelt Danse Diabolique, and Lehar's extraordinary Eine Vision, more of a miniature tone poem than anything else, added intrigue to the familiar fare.

The RSNO sounded a bit flat - they're at the fag end of a round of festive concerts that has been running since mid-December, but it was fascinating to observe Danzmayr in action as he steadily gathers experience in his learning post.

Particularly in the first half, it was almost as though everything was a little too conscious and too self-aware; and that sort of calculation can lead to stilted results. When he was a student in Finland, Danzmayr had a "what the hell" moment, let all the rules and strictures go, and just conducted as he felt the music. I wonder if he might need one of those moments of liberation in Scotland before his tenure runs out.

Meanwhile, he's establishing a connection with audiences through his chat; and one other point: if he ever does Eduard Strauss's monumentally daft Carmen Quadrille again, he should let the audience in on the joke before he plays it, and tell them it's a piece of moderately-inspired lunacy. They'll get the point.