Finnis : The Air, Turning (World première)
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Steven Osborne, piano)
Rimsky-Korsakov : Scheherazade (Laura Samuel, violin)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov
Having never heard any of Edmund Finnis's music before, The Air, Turning was a pleasant discovery, for the most part. I was put in mind of a mobile, rotating gently in a faint breeze, turning both in full, and in its individual parts, the sounds from the orchestra coolly glistening. The piece suddenly built up to a change of pace, as if gathering momentum for a new episode, and then came to an abrupt conclusion, as a result of which it felt oddly unfinished to me, which was disconcerting and somewhat unsatisfactory, but the preceding music was appealing.
Steven Osborne was stepping in at short notice for an indisposed Yevgeny Sudbin, and that was, prior to the actual concert, a bit of a disappointment. No offence intended to Mr. Osborne, but he is, to me, what you might call a known quantity (and a sure value), where Sudbin would have been another discovery. However, Osborne's performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Concerto left little to be desired - maybe more of a singing tone in the second movement, and if he had brought the same ferocious energy to the first as he did to the last, it would have been perfect - and he was admirably supported by Volkov and the orchestra in fine, passionate form.
They brought the same passion to Rimsky-Korsakov's lavish oriental fantasy Scheherazade, brimming over with colourful, sensual detail. Laura Samuel's technical prowess was pushed somewhat by the double-stopping at the start of the final movement, and the long, sustained harmonic E at the end, but she was a persuasive story-teller otherwise, and other orchestral members enjoyed the spotlight of Rimsky-Korsakov's endlessly inventive orchestration as it highlighted them in turn. The bassoon solo at the start of the second movement was played in a somewhat idiosyncratic manner, but interesting nevertheless, while the overall pace and sweep of the music was excellently served, particularly the great rush of the sea returning in the last movement, a veritable musical tidal wave carrying all before it.
[Next : 26th February]
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