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.