Music review: Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Usher Hall, Edinburgh ****
Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1 with soloist Bertrand Chamayou was a different story as the brass added textural warmth and substance to this musical tempest. Chamayou embraced the edgy virtuosity and fizzing scale passages of the faster movements which he delivered at such a lick it had the audience on the edge of their seats. The serene slow movement allowed time for him to engage on a deeper level with the bassoon, horns and lower strings before the dazzling finale.
While Mendelssohn makes the concerto his own, after a nod to Beethoven, romanticism moves closer to Wagner in Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony No 3. Krivine and the orchestra, now almost symphonic in size, gave a dramatic reading of this lyrical work. The surging Rhine river was beautifully evoked by the strings in the first movement while the horns underpinned the boisterous ländler with a bagpipe-like drone. Although at odds with rest of the symphony, the mesmerising chorale-like fourth movement was sublime.
Apart from a few rhythmic wobbles in the finale, this performance had plenty of energy and swagger.
SUSAN NICKALLS