Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Saturday 10th October

Miranda Heggie

Four stars

With a focus this season on Tchaikovsky, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra gave a stirring and invigorating performance of his lavish 5th Symphony, with surging waves of emotion illuminating the composer’s lush romanticism. Music Director Peter Oundjian conducted Tchaikovsky’s vivid score with vitality and panache, expertly moulding the music as the orchestra gathered momentum. Opening with a rich, velvety sound, the funereal clarinet solo in the first movement was given a rounded warmth, against a backdrop of sombre strings. The exciting and unpredictable second movement was thrilling, with thunderous tremolos in the timpani, before a soothing, serene dialogue between instruments.

In keeping with the Russian slant to the programme, the concert opened with the overture to Borodin’s only opera, ‘Prince Igor’. Its sombre, stately introduction was played with refined poise, before the music seemed to open out, with burnished tones in the brass and florid and dextrous string playing.

The first half culminated with composer and violist Brett Dean’s viola concerto, the solo part played by Dean himself. One tends not to think of a composer having to practice their own music, but witnessing the intense levels of virtuosity the piece demands it’s easy to see why Dean had thought ‘crikey, this is pretty hard’ when preparing for its first performance! The opening movement, ‘fragments’, seems to come out of nowhere, presenting the sound as an organic musical organism, before the music transforms into the jagged, driven ‘pursuit’. The rumblings of the lower strings created an almost industrial sound, and the tense layering of rhythms gave a slight sense of unease. The final movement, ‘Veiled and Mysterious’ is just that – compelling in its initial stillness, the solo viola draws the listener in to an intriguing and mystical sound world.