Music

RSNO/Afkham

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Keith Bruce

Four stars

The violin Concerto clarinettist Mark Simpson composed for his fellow winner of the BBC Young Musician title, Nicola Benedetti, has been promised to RSNO audiences twice before, and the work’s Scottish premiere looks likely to have made it by the skin of its teeth in 2024 as Scotland’s classical star winds down her performing commitments before having a child.

Perhaps, though, it found its ideal moment to remind Benedetti’s loyal fan base why she has been able to found a major music education initiative and become director of the Edinburgh International Festival. Her skill on her instrument is the basis of all that and Simpson has written a concerto with her virtuosity at the top of his mind.

The fiery style Benedetti brings to the concertos of Bruch and Brahms came leaping off the page from the start, the quietness of its opening proving very short lived as it develops into a very energetic second movement, of five, played without any breaks.

Read more: Review: Scottish Chamber Orchestra at City Halls, Glasgow

It is a full-on work, with few places for the soloist to rest, and little respite for the orchestral players - or the audience - either. There is some very distinctive vocabulary in the orchestration, particularly the muted trombones, and some very big moments from the whole ensemble, but conductor David Afkham, making his RSNO debut, maintained a careful balance with the soloist even when the brass was off the leash.

Later, thankfully, there was some stillness, an Eastern flavour to a contemplative passage for Benedetti and two violas and a long solo cadenza that included an ear-catching glissando and left hand pizzicato figure.

Simpson’s music is rich in influences, with echoes of everything from Bach to Carl Stalling’s cartoon music and a finale that brought to mind both John Adams and John Williams. The frantic finish finds a melodiousness that earlier sections perhaps lack.

On the more familiar fare of Shostakovich, Afkham surely earned an early return invitation, a man who clearly meant business with the assertive openings of the first two movements. There was no ambiguity about this Shostakovich Five: dark certainly, but unequivocal in its darkness. The triple time music was lighter, but still sinister.

The RSNO plays the music of this composer less often than was once the case, but the power and panache is still there, with superb wind solos in the Largo and leader Maya Iwabuchi’s strings superb in the demanding finale.