RSNO & Lawrence Power, Edinburgh review: 'spellbinding'
There was something of the night about this performance from the RSNO and violist Lawrence Power, writes David Kettle
RSNO and Lawrence Power, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★
“You may have noticed that there’s rather a morbid theme to tonight’s concert,” observed RSNO clarinettist William Knight in his insightful introduction. No kidding. Death was welcomed with open arms in the evening’s brief opener, Bach’s song Komm, süsser Tod in a lush, indulgent orchestral reworking by Leopold Stokowski, was given a reading so sweet and tender (and slow) by conductor Patrick Hahn that it felt almost macabre.
There’s plenty that’s morbid – not to say downright grotesque – in Alfred Schnittke’s 1985 Viola Concerto, which, as Knight himself explained, often seems to stare death straight in the face, and feels rooted in the desparation and futility of the Societ culture in which it was written. Violist Lawrence Power gave a spellbinding account, very much a dramatic protagonist among the composer’s restlessly shifting musical ideas and styles – one minute wailing in agony, only to turn back with a wicked grin the next. It’s a piece that demands utter commitment and belief from its soloist, and Power supplied them movingly, propelling himself through the furious assault of the second movement with nervous energy, and finding a provocative balance between acceptance and resignation at the Concerto’s dark conclusion. His encore – the upliftingly rhapsodic “Les voix humaines” by Marin Marais, in a beautifully freewheeling duet with RSNO principal cellist Pei-Jee Ng – wafted in some much-needed light and air.
It was back to suffocating Soviet repression after the interval, however, in Shostakovich’s notoriously double-edged Fifth Symphony, which Hahn attacked with grit and determination. His rough, raw scherzo stomped with aggression, and if his slow movement slightly struggled to hang together, he played up the ambiguities of the finale (triumphant or sarcastic?) convincingly, goading the RSNO players to ever greater brilliance. If inkier darkness makes the light shine all the more brightly, then surely the reverse is also true.
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.