Academy of St Martin in the Fields,

Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

Rowena Smith

Star rating: ****

This was a rare appearance in Glasgow from a world-renowned pianist and a highly-regarded chamber orchestra as part of the Glasgow International Series, though whether the Royal Concert Hall was really the right venue was always going to be questionable. In the event, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Murray Perahia overcame the concert hall’s less than ideal acoustic and its far from intimate atmosphere, though their performance would certainly have been heard to better advantage in the City Halls.

With a programme consisting of Mozart and Bach, both the great J S and his son J C, this could easily have been a concert given by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in intimate mode. Yet hearing the two orchestras on consecutive nights demonstrated just how different they are, the pared-down clarity of the SCO’s Beethoven worlds away from the soft-edged warmth of the academy’s Mozart.

Neither approach was superior to the other, but they were fascinatingly different. Bach on modern instruments, or certainly Bach without a nod in the direction of period-instrument performance practice, is in danger of becoming taboo these days, so it was refreshing to hear the orchestra’s unapologetically modern take on his D major Keyboard Concerto in which Perahia’s delicate, beautifully phrased account of the solo line was matched by the warmth of the orchestral accompaniment.

Perahia is an elegantly understated pianist and his performance of Mozart’s G Major Concerto, K453, was like overhearing a private conversation rather than listening to a public utterance. Sophistication and elegance were also to the fore as Perahia swapped the piano stool for the podium to conduct Mozart’s Prague Symphony at the close of the programme. His conducting, like his playing, was low-key but they performance was never less than compelling.

 

Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City Halls, Glasgow

Rowena Smith

Star rating: ****

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra rarely confines itself to the conventional overture-concerto-symphony programming format, with the result that it can be seen as a novelty when it does. This concert was such an occasion, with an overture and concerto by Beethoven followed by the First Symphony of Brahms. With the SCO’s principal guest conductor, Olari Elts, at the helm, this was unlikely to be a dull or predictable performance.

Elts cuts a distinctly eccentric figure on the podium, swinging, slicing and dancing his way through the repertoire, though here, following the concert opener of Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture, he was obliged to tone down his flamboyant style for the composer’s Violin Concerto to accommodate soloist Sergey Khachatryan. The young Armenian violinist gave an earnest account of the concerto, rather losing sight of the lightness that goes hand in hand with its profundity.

The performance was rather a hard slog as a result, especially given Khachatryan’s fondness for pulling back the tempo at key moments. There also seemed to be some disparity between the cool clarity of the expanded orchestra’s period performance-referenced style and Khachatryan’s solidly 20th-century, full-toned Russian playing.

In an excellent example of the SCO’s trademark versatility, it was a completely different-sounding orchestra that performed Brahms’s First Symphony, the transparent sheen of the strings in the Beethoven replaced by a sound characterised by almost voluptuous warmth. This was a decidedly over-the-top performance that veered towards the theatrical at times, full of huge contrasts that emphasised the ebb and flow of the music. Despite the flamboyance, or indeed because of it, this was an engaging performance that captured the passion of Brahms’s music, even if attention to individual detail sometimes seemed to have been neglected in favour of overall sweep.

 

BBC SSO Bohemian Rhapsodies, City Halls, Glasgow

IONA BAIN

Star rating: ****

It was the debut of a likeable venture with a smart marketing tag. In the Bohemian Rhapsodies season for Radio 3, the SSO dust off piano concertos by the underplayed composer Bohuslav Martinu and pair them with more popular Janacek and Dvorak works, thus highlighting their shared roots in the inspirational culture of Czechoslovakia.

For the most part, it was charmingly executed in a formidable evening of performances from the orchestra and their conductor Stefan Solyom, though Martinu’s first piano concerto proved, surprisingly, to be something of an acquired taste.

This is perhaps due to the drawn-in, mysterious playing style of soloist Ivo Kahanek. It wasn’t ostentatious and there were strange aspects relating to his presentation, such as his playing from the music and the odd splashy chord. But we don’t go to hear a Czech play Czech music primarily for technical gloss. His restrained, intuitively dark treatment of the material made it seem more complexly disturbing than it otherwise might have been -- a post-show performance of Janacek demonstrated Kahanek is more than capable of performing with passion.

The mood of introspection carried over into the second half, where the New World Symphony was filled with points of understated contemplation amid the heady fanfares and richly worked development material.

The slower tempo of the spiritual songs instilled them with a sincere lyricism, while the second movement retained its original air of simple, Elysian joy, partly through Jane Evans’s soaring cor anglais solo. It was Solyom’s pacing in both this, and the Carnival Overture, that allowed Dvorak’s quicker episodes to ascend so convincingly to those heart-racing heights.

 

Ivo Kahanek Piano Recital, City Halls, Glasgow

Iona Bain

Star rating: *****

Anyone whose curiosity was piqued by Ivo Kahanek’s first performance with the BBC SSO on Thursday had another chance to catch the Czech in action yesterday. It certainly made for a satisfying sequel, as this recital was varied and beautifully presented, an excellent vehicle for Kahanek’s emotionally intelligent playing and highly personal approach to works from his native soil.

He got his audience on side with a playful rendition of Mozart’s C major Sonata, giving the piece effervescent grace and beginning on a humorous note. But he also knew how to balance the lighter, central European fare with more troubled works from his homeland. This was exemplified by the different era and mood of the following piece, Klein’s desolate Piano Sonata, composed in a Nazi concentration camp. It was brave to take such a chronological leap so early, but Kahanek carried the atonal intensity through with blazing dynamic contrasts and an unsettling rhythmic tautness.

Janacek’s 1st October 1905, written to mark the death of a rioter, had a more tender character, but Kananek did not sacrifice intensity, articulating the expansive folk melodies with a smooth and mellifluous tone. He continued his riff on a national theme with a nostalgic sonata by Martinu, which was assertive but enigmatic. Rounded off by a powerhouse performance of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, he demonstrated deep musical insight and displayed versatility and virtuosity in equal, compelling measure.

 

RSNO, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Conrad Wilson

Star rating: ***

Not all Shostakovich’s symphonies are worthy of the performances they receive, and No 11 used to be a case in point. Its passages of pandemonium, bludgeoned into our brains in the second and fourth movements, could seem too big for their boots. Its slower, quieter, eerier first and third movements were the ones that mattered.

Yet the great outbursts, complete with the clanging of by no means jubilant bells, are what audiences wait for. Like the Symphony No 7, ridiculed by Bartok in his Concerto for Orchestra, the work is a monster, rising relentlessly from the depths of the orchestra to depict the 1905 revolution. With the alert young Danish conductor Thomas Sondergard replacing the indisposed Russian Yakov Kreizberg at the helm of the RSNO, it made a powerful impression in Glasgow on Saturday. The din, where Shostakovich demanded it, was tremendous. The expression on the face of the celesta player -- sitting inactively at her keyboard for much of the performance, while brass blared and drums thundered behind her -- spoke volumes.

Although Sondergard could have been one of those one-work conductors who tour the world with a single symphony as visiting card, the playing supplied better vibes than that. Some moments, with their rattling machine-guns, may have been no more than sound-effects, but the stalking cellos and basses at the heart of the work delivered genuine frissons of menace. If the performance, with its forlorn cor anglais solo, was more panoramic than symphonic, it was all the better for that. In contrast, Ingrid Fliter’s exuberantly deft-fingered account of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto -- with Chopin’s Minute Waltz, full of marvellous rhythmic under­currents, as encore -- formed the perfect prelude. This young Argen­tinian is clearly going places. Watch for her again.

 

 

Will Young, Clyde Auditorium

Marianne Gunn

Star rating: ***

seven years after his Pop Idol win, Will Young proved he can still cut it with a credible show.

Opening at a very sedate pace in a velvet smoking jacket and black turtleneck, Young went through the motions of many of the songs soon to be re-released on his The Hits album, a greatest round-up out next week.

Turning up the funk level, he managed to get the crowd on its feet before breaking into a very shaky rendition of Flower of Scotland while mimicking a Scottish accent. He was relaxed and chatted to the crowd but sometimes his good-natured jocularity jarred a little with the flow of the show.

Proclaiming that he may have run out of steam before he broke into the third song was more than a little self-deprecating as both Changes and Relight My Fire were the perfect showcase for his unusual vocals. Friday’s Child was milked just a little too long with the vocal effects while You and I and All Time Love were by far his most skilfully performed of his own hits.

However, it was the middle section with pianist Dave and the covers of Buzzcocks’ Fallen In Love and Tears for Fears’ Rule The World that really provided the highlight.

His stage school strutting aside, Young has forged a decent career from a forgotten reality TV show and, given more upbeat material, will continue to prevail.

From Friday’s later editions.