RSNO, 13/02/2016

Tchaikovsky : Capriccio italien
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Boris Giltburg, piano)
Mahler : Symphony No. 5 - Adagietto
Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier - Suite

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Jean-Claude Picard

Usually I manage to avoid things like festive-themed concerts, the programming tends to be too obvious for words and the audience can sometimes be - a little strange around the edges, let's say.  However, this year's Valentine's offering from the RSNO was that bit more original.  Plus, Rach 2?  That is one of my "cannot resist" pieces.

So instead of one of Tchaikovsky's pairs of doomed lovers (which, admittedly, he does very well), we got the twinkling Capriccio italien, which duly lived up to its name.  At the outset, it seemed a little slow, but Picard had chosen his tempi advisedly, and the relative speeds, as the piece progressed through its various sections, worked admirably, and he trod a nicely-judged, fine line between portentous and frivolous.

Boris Giltburg is the most recent winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition (in the piano category), which is usually a sure guarantee of quality.  Quality there is; he has a lovely tone, and excellent articulation, and there's a thoughtful musicality in his playing.  However, I have to say that for the Rachmaninoff, he came across as too discreet.  In the first movement, the piano is enveloped in the orchestra, the soloist is commenting on the themes, ornamenting and elaborating on them, but you still require to actually hear all this, and that was difficult tonight.  It got easier as the work progressed; the second movement is quieter in any event, and in the third, the piano is playing more against the orchestra than with it, all of which allowed Giltburg to be heard more distinctly.  The Brahms he gave as an encore confirmed that he was certainly worth hearing, and I'll be getting another chance tomorrow, in a chamber concert that should pose no such problems of balance.

The second half brought us to romance in Vienna, intimate and serious from Mahler, frothy and charming from Richard Strauss.  I tend to find the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony more effective in context than out of it, as here, but this was still a good reading, with a deep, still centre to it.  The concert then concluded with an orchestral précis of Strauss and Hoffmansthal's witty, eloquent evocation of 18th Century Vienna, Der Rosenkavalier.  Now, anybody operatically inclined in Glasgow, and of sufficient years, will probably have something of a love-affair going with Rosenkavalier.  In 1971, Scottish Opera staged now legendary performances of it, conducted by Alexander Gibson, and in those days, as the opera company did not have its own orchestra, it was the Scottish National Orchestra that occupied the pit.  Nobody who was there has ever forgotten those evenings, and there was something deliciously nostalgic - very appropriate, given the nature of the work itself - about hearing that music played by this orchestra once again, even if none of the players are likely to be the same after all these years.  Despite the absence of voices, Picard managed to convey the ecstatic climaxes of the Presentation of the Rose, and the Act 3 Trio convincingly enough, and the two main waltzes were conducted with an entirely appropriate lilt to brings matters to a delightfully rousing finish.

[Next : 14th February]