RSNO, 26/04/2015

Sibelius : Karelia Suite
Nielsen : Violin Concerto (James Ehnes, violin)
Beethoven : Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård
A concert of two halves.  To begin with, we got music from 2015's Scandinavian birthday boys, Sibelius and Nielsen, and what a joy that was!  The Karelia Suite began magically, the hunting horns introducing the jaunty march of the Intermezzo over shimmering strings, and then the whole bouncing along in sprightly, stylish manner, even, almost, with the faintest hint of swing to it.  The Ballade was solemnly reflective, cool and warm tones at once from the orchestra, the winds in particular, while the final Alla marcia had a delightful freshness to it.  There was no useless bluster here, no mindlessly jingoistic bombast, but real tone-painting, subtle and detailed and wholly absorbing.

The Nielsen Violin Concerto is a middle-period work, a little more conventional in style than the better known Flute or Clarinet concertos, but still characteristically Nielsen - that is to say, quirky and unpredictable.  The violin soloist was constantly making entries that seemed, at first glance, to be wholly disconnected from the orchestral  material introducing it, and darting off into strange meanders, as the soloist explores the instrument's capabilities.  It's in two movements, each in two parts, and each with a substantial cadenza.  Nielsen, himself a violinist, orchestrated the piece extremely carefully - the soloist is never pitted against the full force of the orchestra, but is always allowed the space to be heard clearly.  As in the Sibelius, the orchestra sounded excellent; Nielsen is fresh air and open water to Sibelius's dark forests and craggy landscapes, but Søndergård knew how to get both from the RSNO, while James Ehnes amply met the challenges of the solo role, and then treated us to a rather beautiful encore in the form of the Andante from BWV 1003, still and serene after the unruly energies of the Concerto.

Now, I appreciate Søndergård a great deal.  Apart from his concerts with the RSNO, which are quite frequent, given that he's the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, I've heard a fair bit of his work over the radio, usually with the National Orchestra of Wales, whose Principal Conductor he is, and it's rare that I don't enjoy his performances.  Tonight's concert had shown every sign of living up to his usual promise, with a first-class opening half, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with the Beethoven.

The standard of playing from the orchestra was fine, but the vital spark was missing from the Eroica. It's possibly my favourite Beethoven symphony, but only the third movement really grabbed my attention to any degree.  The rest was turgid, accurate but dull, nothing heroic worth mentioning, certainly not that sense of pushing the envelope that is very much a part of its appeal.  This was a clean, bland, cookie-cutter performance, a gaping vacancy after the delightful Sibelius and Nielsen of the first half.  What a shame.

[Next : 2nd May]