RSNO, 02/05/2015

Sibelius : Night Ride and Sunrise
Grieg : Piano Concert (Christian Ihle Hadland, piano)
Nielsen : Symphony No. 4 "The Inextinguishable"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Storgårds
Like most of its Western counterparts, the BBC runs an emerging artists programme, New Generation Artists, for the rising stars of the future, guaranteeing considerable exposure, primarily on the radio.  All these young performers selected are very talented, of course, but every other "generation" or so, there comes one who really makes you (well, me, anyway) sit up and pay attention.  The Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, who graduated from the programme two years ago, is one such, and I was very keen to see him perform live, in this second Nordic excursion from the RSNO.

First, however, came one of Sibelius's lesser-known tone poems, "Night Ride and Sunrise", and its cacophonous debut did not bode well.  The piece does have a cacophonous debut, right enough, but this one just sounded messy, and the ride that followed was really going nowhere, flat and monotonous, without drive or excitement to it.  The sunrise was rather better, the eight horns filling the hall with an appropriately golden glow of sound.  However, the performance as a whole left me with some misgivings for the rest of the concert.

Hadland was as good as I had hoped, a full, rich sound, a broad dynamic range thoughtfully applied, and a singing tone for the melodic line, along with the effortless virtuosity common to most young performers these days.  He was, though, ill-served by a very routine performance from Storgårds and the orchestra, and some incautious balancing which occasionally drowned him out.  I would find myself absorbed in moments of delicate poetry from Hadland, only to be brought back down to earth by the lead weight of the orchestra.  It was a great pity; the Grieg concerto is no longer quite as present in our concert halls as it used to be (quite probably thanks to Morecambe & Wise, and if you don't get that reference, then try this), and I was rather sorry that the first live performance I've seen in years was this moderate.  Hadland, however, I will gladly see again if and when time and location permit.

The remainder of the concert was devoted to Nielsen's luminous and uplifting 4th Symphony.  This was not as good a performance as the BBCSSO under Thomas Dausgaard 18 months ago (here), there were a couple of rough corners and it lacked the open-air quality I look for in Nielsen, but there were also many good things going on, particularly from the winds, and the two timpanists made battle with gusto.  The sense of triumph over adversity was successfully conveyed, and the radiant conclusion had its expected, inspirational effect on the audience.

[Next : 7th May]