A bitter-sweet symphony for capital's music lovers

Published on Tuesday 6 October 2009 18:53

WITH Scotland's three main orchestras appearing on all but consecutive nights at the Usher Hall this weekend, Edinburgh is spoilt for choice. What capital city wouldn't be proud of such an embarrassment of symphonic riches? It's like a festival outside Festival time.

Yet, as things stood at the start of this week, advance sales for the third of these concerts in the 2,000– plus capacity hall – Sunday's appearance by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with its esteemed new maestro, Donald Runnicles – was, depending on whom you spoke to, between 250 and 400. Are those who create these golden opportunities flogging a dead horse?

Just look at what's on offer over the next few days. Tomorrow night, the starry duo of conductor Louis Langre and soprano Lisa Milne (fresh from a performance of the same work at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest last week) head up a performance of Mozart's glorious Mass in C minor with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. The programme – which opens the new SCO season – celebrates unfinished masterpieces, so Schubert's famous Unfinished Symphony is there too.

The following night, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, now settling back into its regular Friday night Usher Hall routine, welcomes Kristian Jrvi (son of former RSNO chief conductor Neeme Jrvi) to direct a beefy mix of Bernstein's Overture and Suite from Candide, Strauss's delicious Oboe Concerto and Brahms's First Symphony.

Then Sunday sees something new for the spruced-up hall – the first of four Edinburgh appearances this season by the SSO, an orchestra absent from regular season schedules in Edinburgh for far too long. It opens with Mahler's Symphony No 1, Beethoven's First and Berg's beguiling Seven Early Songs. Rather more significantly, it marks the first appearance ever of Edinburgh-born Runnicles – former music supremo of San Francisco Opera – as a principal post-holder of a Scottish orchestra. It's a situation that is long overdue. The flags should be out – and so should the crowds.

But the reality is, the SCO and RSNO are established presences in the capital: the SSO is the newcomer, and the Edinburgh audiences – the last few years' Usher Hall disruption aside – appear to feel comfortable with their traditional winter pattern. It's certainly not a slur on an orchestra that is riding on a high at the moment, and which is well enough known to Edinburgh audiences through hit appearances at the International Festival, especially with Runnicles.

Only last week, it picked up its second consecutive Gramophone Award, for a Hyperion recording of Britten's Piano Concerto, with soloist Steven Osborne, and Stravinsky's Young Apollo, both conducted by principal guest conductor Ilan Volkov.

On the same day, it announced the addition of Andrew Manze to its team of in-house conductors. As associate guest conductor, Manze – best known for his enlightening stance on the baroque and classical repertoire – brings a fascinating additional dimension to the existing specialisms of Runnicles and Volkov. "It takes us into repertoire areas not normally explored by symphony orchestras," says SSO director Gavin Reid. Reid is sanguine about the orchestra dipping its toes into the Edinburgh scene. "It's not as if we're about to launch a 22-concert series in the Usher Hall," he says. In fact, two of the SSO appearances are outwith traditional symphonic limits: one appearance as backing to comedian Bill Bailey; the other with TV's A History of Scotland presenter Neil Oliver, performing music from the series' soundtrack. The two mainstream appearances are with Runnicles.

And that's the strange thing about this weekend: why the reticence to buy tickets to hear one of classical music's biggest names, and a prodigal Edinburgh son to boot? There is, it must be said, some evidence to suggest that Sunday night is simply not a good option in Edinburgh. The RSNO tried it when it was decamped from the Usher Hall, plumping ultimately for as few Sundays as possible, or scheduling concerts at an earlier-than-usual hour.

But there's a deeper-rooted issue here. Should Edinburgh allow the new-look Usher Hall to continue in its old ways – as a hall that essentially lets out its facility to a paying customer, leaving it up to the customers to fill the seats? That's an old "town hall" philosophy that rival city Glasgow has gradually abandoned as it developed its now splendid portfolio of venues (the current internal unrest and uncertainty at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall aside).

Or should it use this fresh opportunity to take ownership of a potential increase in programming following its recent refurbishment, and work in active partnership to build a sense of interest and excitement around its activities?

For instance, why does the Usher Hall's website home page – at the time of writing – offer direct links only to information on this week's SCO and RSNO concerts, without even mentioning Runnicles' historic homecoming? Surely a golden marketing and PR opportunity has been completely missed.

And what about leafleting on exit the audiences already attending the hall for other events? We can appreciate the sensitivities the regular orchestras might have in publicising the work of their rivals, but the directors of all three Scottish orchestras already meet regularly to discuss programme clashes. Is collaboration on marketing, driven by the venue, completely out of the question?

As Gavin Reid rightly says: "Scotland's orchestras are currently offering an extraordinary embarrassment of riches, week after week, and attracting world-class artists and conductors." But if Edinburgh fails to support his orchestra's initial foray into the Usher Hall, will he end up asking "why bother?"

The message is surely this: don't let lack of foresight, ambition and enterprise kill the current fresh opportunity to give Edinburgh the all-year international musical profile it is perfectly capable of sustaining. As for this weekend: what's not to get excited about?

&149 Orchestral music at the Usher Hall this weekend: Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Thursday, 8 October; Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Friday, 9 October; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sunday, 11 October. Tel: [phone].