Music
RSNO/Watanabe
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Keith Bruce
four stars
THE most famous composition of Carl Orff was inspired by, and draws its texts and title from, a collection of medieval writing, but the RSNO concerts featuring it were all about new talent.
The youngest were in the RSNO Junior Chorus (some so small their feet did not reach the floor from the seats of the Usher Hall’s choir stalls), their contribution to Orff’s Carmina Burana complementing that of an RSNO Chorus that has been refreshed by many new recruits. If chorus master Gregory Batsleer felt that the work really needed more voices than he had at his disposal, as he said to me just before the performance, the fact is that his forces seemed to suit the approach of guest conductor Kensho Watanabe perfectly. Still in his very early 30s, the Yokohama-born, US-raised assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra has been mentored by Yannick Nezet-Seguin and was making his RSNO debut. A young man with opera-conducting experience, he gave the singers the fullest attention (mouthing the words of O Fortuna from the start), and produced a performance that was not just about dynamics, but concerned with the sonic contrasts within the work and among the resources he marshalled onstage.
Alongside Handel’s Hallelujah and Zadok, and Verdi’s Requiem and Hebrew Slaves, the opening of Carmina Burana is one of the most popular scores for massed voices, but Watanabe was not distracted by that in a reading of the entire hour-long work that was intensely musical. Everything from plainchant to the work of Orff’s contemporaries, Stravinsky (in the orchestration) and Weill (in the male chorus), can be heard in the writing. Soloists FFlur Wyn, Adrian Dwyer, and particularly Scottish Opera favourite Stephen Gadd each added their own essential elements, the baritone’s pantomimic drunk all the better for leaning against the conductor’s meticulous precision.
That attention to detail was also apparent in the opening performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 with a rather smaller RSNO and Scottish International Piano Competition winner Can Cakmur. The young Turk kept things measured as well, for all that his playing was lyrical and flowing on one of Beethoven’s sunniest works.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article