Classical review: RSNO

Published on Sunday 31 January 2010 21:33

ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA *** USHER HALL, EDINBURGH

DAVID DANZMAYR has clearly benefited from his "apprenticeship" tenure as assistant conductor of the RSNO, a three-year post that comes to an end this season. In sole charge of the orchestra for Friday night's Usher Hall programme, he demonstrated ample confidence and a soundness of technique that bodes well for his future development.

He was instantly at home in the amiable sound world of Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, playing it straight down the line, with just a hint of personal preference in the spacious expanse of The Death of Aase.

Nor did Michael Daugherty's piano concerto Deus ex Machina, receiving its UK premiere here, present the young Austrian with difficulty. This music is typical Daugherty – minimalist leanings to tonality, offset by attractive jazz-inspired themes and a glitzy approach to orchestration that, at its most extravagant, bears all the twinkly trappings of a Hollywood score.

Bronx-born pianist Terence Wilson's schmoozy bending of the melodies gave it a sense of Gershwin-in-our-time, but it was hard not to feel short-changed by the frequent repetitiveness of the music – a sense of running out of steam; but equally the autumnal beauty of Train of Tears (each movement reflects images of trains) bore an irresistible allure.

Danzmayr exerted unflinching control, but his biggest test came in Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, on which he bravely set out to make his own mark. It wasn't always a comfortable journey, laced with severe tempo changes that foxed even the RSNO, and some questionable issues of balance. But you had to admire his bravado.