Music
RSNO/Chan
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keith Bruce
four stars
AS part of the celebrations of the RSNO's 125 anniversary, welcoming back former chief conductor Neeme Jarvi, this concert was already an abject failure when piano soloist Ingrid Fliter also called off sick at the last minute. The orchestra's loyal following turned out regardless however, and were rewarded with memorable performances by two young talents who will assuredly be receiving return invitations to Scotland.
That was already the case for conductor Elim Chan, whose swift re-appearance on the podium reflects a developing relationship with the musicians, and particularly the RSNO's strings who praise her precision and clarity. Some might have thought there was a little too much of that for Tchaikovsky in the opening Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, but that might equally be because with limited rehearsal time it was the last work on the list. Like the last US President, there is no drama about Chan's working method, and Tchaikovsky perhaps needs some.
Replacement soloist, the Swiss-Chinese Louis Schwizgebel, is a former BBC New Generation Artist with an established international career but is also not a flashy performer. With the orchestra reduced almost to chamber forces, this was a period performance-informed reading of Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. There was some nice idiosyncratic pacing in Schwizgebel's first movement cadenza and the pianist's phrasing was also very individual in the finale. The composer himself did not have the highest regard for the piece, by that last movement surely has early touches of the distinctive orchestral syncopation that makes the end of the Fifth Symphony so special.
Rachmaninov symphonies seems to be relative rarities at the moment but Chan clearly relished directing an RSNO where a promoted viola front desk was the only area without prinicipals in place. The Second is a glorious piece, bursting with some of the composer's best tunes, and in details like the superbly crisp opening to the second movement, the petite conductor had all the players on their mettle.
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