AT the end of their first Usher Hall appearance in this year's
festival, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra strings -- expanded for the
occasion -- turned on a dazzling, rumbustious display in Tchaikovsky's
Souvenir de Florence. And thank God they did. Because, apart from that
and a preceding wee gem in Stravinsky's arrangement of a Pas de Deux
from The Sleeping Beauty, they were nearly in trouble last night.
I have raised doubts before about the Russian conductor Yuri Simonov.
They came back in spades last night. He directed the SCO in the slowest
version of Stravinsky's Apollo that I have ever heard. It wasn't just
slow; it was fatally below stalling speed with the result that it was
lifeless, spiritless, four square. Apollo is a ballet score; this
version would have been impossible to dance. Some potentially effective
playing went for nothing.
And he nearly did it again in Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, here
played in its original version -- though so hair-raising were some of
the results that the fact almost went by unnoticed. Simonov began it as
though it were a continuation of Apollo -- all laid back and a bit
banal. In comes cello soloist Raphael Wallfisch who has an altogether
different idea -- beefy playing with momentum.
Next passage without the soloist and Simonov is back in neutral. And
so on. Ye gods, talk about creative tension. Gradually -- and it was
almost tangible -- you could sense the SCO begin to tune into
Wallfisch's playing, circumventing Simonov. Edge of the seat stuff, with
solo playing of brilliant panache from Wallfisch. Phew.
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