Music
RSNO/Sondergard
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
THE run of concerts by Scotland’s orchestra’s at the end of last week was an opportunity to savour the high standard of string playing we are privileged to enjoy, culminating in this high gloss performance of the music of Grieg, Ravel and Rachmaninov by the RSNO on Saturday.
The Russian composer’s youthful Symphony No.1 benefitted from that but also showcases every section of the orchestra, with the brass to the fore in the opening movement and in the crisp fanfare that opens the finale. It is a work of great contrasts and drama and right up the RSNO’s street, the complex second movement rhythmically fascinating and precision-performed under music director Thomas Sondergard.
Principal flute Katherine Bryan was swiftly back in her place after the birth of her first child to be the opening solo voice in Morning Mood from Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Sondergard radically reordered the pieces for this performance, continuing with the bulk of the Suite No.2 before returning to the better-known Suite No.1 and concluding with Solveig’s Song and In the Hall of the Mountain King.
It was a strategy that worked beautifully for the opening half-hour of the concert, making it less fragmented and more like a film soundtrack. It also placed the beautifully-played string ensemble showcases of The Death of Ase and Anitra’s Dance at the climax of the musical narrative.
The conductor was in charge of the National Orchestra of Wales when Scots mezzo Catriona Morison won Cardiff Singer of the Year 2017, so her RSNO debut with Ravel’s Sheherazade was something of a reunion. Bryan had a crucial role here as well, on the second song, La Flute enchantee, alongside Morison’s rich, full voice, which has a lovely, old-fashioned quality. It was a little disappointing that she was quite so reliant on the score for the occasion, but that may well not be apparent when the concert is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday.
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