BBC SSO/Hermus
City Halls, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
****
ON THE day before the RSNO introduced Scotland to the force of nature that is violinist Sandy Cameron at its Danny Elfman gala concerts, the guest soloist with Scotland’s broadcasting orchestra proved to be another scintillating talent from America. Soprano Sara Hershkowitz is singing the more familiar fare of the “mad scene” from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in Aberdeen, but Glasgow heard (and, crucially, saw) an astonishing performance of the three-part aria from Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. Clad in a shimmering silver sheath dress slashed to the hip, Hershkowitz gave us a ten minute explosion of avant-garde music-theatre that interacted with the front desk of the violas and conductor Antony Hermus, and employed the props of a carry-out bucket of chicken legs and a two litre bottle of a well-known Scottish fizzy drink, its branding carefully removed by the Beeb.
That “kilt” on her performance was justified by a mention of the Loch Ness Monster in the stream of surreal code-language that is the libretto of a piece that was an amazing feat of memory as well as stratospheric coloratura singing. Check out the live-stream of the performance on the orchestra’s website as well as tuning in to next week’s transmission of the concert for a visceral experience.
And that was not even the night’s main attraction. The second half of the evening was Henk de Vlieger’s hour-an-a-bit summary of the music of Wagner’s epic opera cycle in The Ring: an orchestral adventure. The RSNO has tackled this work both in the studio with Neeme Jarvi, over a decade ago, and in its Naked Classics concert strand more recently, but this Dutchman proved an ideal choice for the job. Now a guest conductor with Opera North, Hermus steered the huge orchestra through the arc of the narrative and all its lovely details with masterly clarity. The jump-cuts in Vlieger’s editing early in the suite jar a bit, but the Gotterdammerung climax was beautifully realised.
There was not a lot wrong with the opening Haydn Symphony, No.22 “The Philosopher”, either, but it is rather po-faced for all its instrumental novelty, and struggled in the company it was keeping here.
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 here